The system of designated statistics is a mechanism that identifies and generates the most critical and essential statistics required for social and economic planning/analysis based on approved criteria.

It establishes priorities for data production and hence provides a means for more rational resource allocation among government statistical activities. It also identifies the sources of official statistics.

The system defines the agency responsible, frequency of data production and schedule of data dissemination. It shall also indicate the major data items to be collected and the geographic level of disaggregation, among others.