now undergoing rapid transformation, a process that demands a greater role for market forces in fostering a more competitive environment and a more efficient resource allocation. for us, complementary data beyond the core statistical data series mentioned above are needed. last year, we joined a long list of developing countries in subscribing to the imf general data dissemination standards ( gdds ). we are working actively to meet the higher standards, the special data dissemination standards ( sdds ), which has been adopted by the developed and the emerging market economies. given our responsibilities as policy makers and regulators of the financial system, we at the central bank can claim a higher than average stake in the development of our statistical base. our new monetary policy framework – centred around the repo rate - places a high premium on the ability to accurately measure the pulse of the economy at any point in time and to anticipate short term trends. very often this is a difficult task because sufficient information is not available on a timely basis. the bank has tried to close the gap itself by introducing new series. for example, we have introduced quarterly gdp estimates, export and import price indices, as well as new indicators of export competitiveness. we are currently working on the development of a range of indicators of building costs and real estate prices as well as more comprehensive estimates of consumer spending and private indebtedness. large capital flows have now become an important element in the economic landscape of trinidad and tobago. these flows have significant consequences for exchange markets, and their abrupt variations ( in either capital inflows or outflows ) can be a signal of impending problems. the central bank is now working closely with private financial institutions and with the trinidad and tobago securities and exchange commission ( sec ) to collate more reliable data on the capital account of the balance of payments. for countries with access to international capital markets, like trinidad and tobago, reliable and timely data along with transparent statistical practices are a basic requirement. important institutional changes are currently in train at the central statistical office ( cso ) to strengthen the organization ’ s autonomy and to enable it to better fulfill this mandate. the key to the restructuring is the planned transition of the institution to executive status ( similar to the central bank ) and the implementation of measures to build operational capacity, including the strengthening of its human resources. these institutional changes will need to be accompanied by the use of more modern techniques. nowadays, information providers are engaged in more active deployment of web - enabled technology to

national boundaries in the event of a crisis. this insight will affect the thinking with regard to supervision, which should in turn affect the demands made of the banks. perhaps one should ultimately require that each bank is organised so that the national units can operate entirely independent of one another? of course, this is not in line with what has been agreed on up to now in europe with regard to the banks ’ possibility to operate over national boundaries, but it is a natural consequence of not being able to discuss more rational solutions in advance. this reasoning is of course highly relevant to us in sweden, too. we have a number of banks in the nordic and baltic countries that have significant and important cross - border operations. i believe that one can require from both authorities and politicians – in all of the countries concerned – that they should be able to agree on a slightly better way of winding up a bank in distress than cutting it up along national boundaries. but if this becomes an overly heavy political burden we must expect the countries concerned to quite simply take over the part of the bank that is in their own country – even if this solution will be much more expensive in total for the tax - payers. now, however, there is hope. just a few weeks ago the financial stability board, which consists of ministries of finance, central banks and financial supervisory authorities in the g20 countries, published new norms for managing crises in cross - border banks. for instance, they discussed how to make bondholders bear their share of the costs in the event of a crash. when all of this has been translated into legislation that is applied by all of the countries, we will have managed important problems faced in winding up large, cross - border banks. but it still remains to be seen whether one can actually find princples for how the costs should be allocated between the different countries. in the current debate on how much capital the banks need, it may also be worth remembering that the better legislation one has for winding up banks in distress, the less capital they will need to hold. the capital can be regarded as the buffer necessary to avoid tax - payers having to bear the costs in a crisis. if one has regulated how various lenders should contribute, the need for a buffer is reduced. with these reflections, it is time for me to wind up. not just my speech here today, but in a few days my time as a member of the executive board of the riksbank. as i said, it has