The governor of Tonga's National Reserve Bank says the country needs to calculate the economic cost of domestic violence.
Siosi Mafi raised the issue at a workshop on reporting domestic violence this week.
Matangi Tonga reports Ms Mafi saying although Tonga lacks statistics on the economic cost of domestic violence, the cost of the crime is huge.
She says in Tonga's closest neighbour, Fiji, the cost of family violence was nearly 200 million US dollars in 2011, which is more than half Tonga's GDP.
Siosi Mafi there are a few channels where costs could be measured, such as the health, justice, social services, education and business sectors.
She says there is a need for someone interested in the issue to collate the information from the different sectors to produce an estimate for Tonga.
