Press Release No. 17/127

Canada Adheres to the International Monetary Fund's Special Data Dissemination Standard Plus

April 11, 2017

• Canada has completed the requirements for adherence to the highest tier of the Data Standards Initiatives.

Canada has completed the requirements for adherence to the IMF’s Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) Plus—the highest tier of the Data Standards Initiatives. The SDDS Plus data for Canada are now posted on the IMF’s Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board. The SDDS Plus builds on the SDDS to guide statistically advanced countries to publish comprehensive, timely, accessible, and reliable economic and financial data in an environment of continuing economic and financial integration.

“Canada is proud to join other international leaders as an adherent to the SDDS Plus, providing data users with an enhanced set of high quality, timely and comprehensive macroeconomic and financial statistics reflective of Canada's participation in a dynamic and complex global economy,” said Mr. Anil Arora, Chief Statistician of Canada.

Mr. Louis Marc Ducharme, Director of the IMF’s Statistics Department, welcomed Canada’s adherence, noting that “dissemination of the new data under the SDDS Plus will help foster a deeper understanding and a better assessment of the performance of the financial sector, cross-border-financial linkages, and vulnerabilities of the economy to shocks.”

The Data Standards Initiatives were established in the mid-1990s to enhance member countries’ data transparency and to promote the development of sound statistical systems. The need for data standards was highlighted by the financial crises of the mid-1990s and again in the late-2000s, when information deficiencies were seen to play a role.

The Data Standards Initiatives also include the SDDS and the Enhanced General Data Dissemination System. Detailed information on the Data Standards Initiatives can be found on the Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board at www.dsbb.imf.org. For more information on the SDDS Plus and its worldwide launch, see the IMF’s press release of November 18, 2014.