The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has claimed and affected millions of lives worldwide at an unprecedented rate, to the point of paralyzing the smallest of families to the biggest of nations. With lockdowns and community quarantine measures imposed, mobility has become restricted, resulting to reduction in employment across all sectors. This has caused a negative impact to the livelihood of millions of Filipinos and, ultimately, disrupted the country’s momentum towards achieving its economic targets.

 

With the challenges and negative impacts of the pandemic in mind, the 32nd National Statistics Month adopts the theme – “NSM@32: Revving up for Economic and Social Recovery Through Evidence-Based Policies.” This was also inspired by the “Recharge PH” Program of the government which rallies all sectors of the economy and all the Filipino people to adopt a “whole of society approach” to unite and contribute towards economic recovery.

 

The theme accentuates the importance of statistics as bases for policy decisions to address the socioeconomic impact of COVID-19. It emphasizes that using relevant statistics as solid evidence will guide and support the nation’s efforts in navigating the pandemic towards socioeconomic recovery.

 

In these uncertain times, the relevance and adequacy of information and statistics is crucial particularly in the close monitoring of COVID-19 active cases, recoveries, and deaths, and in identifying the group of people qualified for government financial aid. Decisions must be anchored on good official statistics.

 

As the situation eases, relevant and timely statistics play an important role in crafting better policies to steer socioeconomic recovery to include creating employment and other economic opportunities.