The ECO Secretariat, in cooperation with the Statistical Center of Iran (SCI), co-hosted a webinar entitled “Working with Statistical Software to Advance Price Statistics – Leveraging Open Data and Web Scraping for Iranian CPI” on 17 December 2025. The event brought together experts and officials from the ECO Member States to exchange views on innovative approaches aimed at enhancing the quality, efficiency, and timeliness of official economic statistics.
The webinar highlighted the practical application of open data sources and web-scraping techniques in the compilation of the Consumer Price Index (CPI). These digital methodologies complement traditional data-collection practices by enabling faster and more cost-effective access to price information, particularly from online and e-commerce platforms, thereby strengthening the foundations of evidence-based policymaking.
The ECO Secretariat commended the Statistical Center of Iran for successfully organizing a series of three technical seminars in 2025, which made a valuable contribution to regional cooperation and statistical capacity building. The Secretariat further encouraged national statistical agencies of the ECO Member States to undertake similar capacity-building initiatives in 2026, with a view to strengthening regional statistical cooperation and ensuring that the ECO statistical system effectively supports the regional long-term development objectives.
