Press Release No. 04/150

Press Release: The Central African Republic Formally Begins Participation in the IMF's General Data Dissemination System

July 16, 2004

The Central African Republic has begun participating in the International Monetary Fund's General Data Dissemination System (GDDS), marking an important step forward in the development of the country's statistical system. Comprehensive information on its statistical production and dissemination practices were published on the IMF's Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board (DSBB) http://dsbb.imf.org/Applications/web/gdds/gddshome/ on June 14, 2004.

The GDDS, established by the IMF in 1997, provides a framework to assist IMF member countries to develop their statistical systems with the objective of producing comprehensive and accurate statistics for policy-making and analysis. It addresses the quality and the dissemination of data. In addition, the DSBB for the Central African Republic shows the country's plans for improvements in its statistical infrastructure and its related technical assistance needs. This information provides the international community with useful information to develop and coordinate their technical cooperation projects in the Central African Republic.

Since its inception, 78 countries have participated in GDDS and have had their metadata published in the IMF's DSBB. Of this total, four countries (Armenia, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, and the Kyrgyz Republic) have graduated to the Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS).

Mrs. Carol S. Carson, Director of the IMF's Statistics Department, noted that GDDS participation was a milestone for these countries. "I am pleased to note that the Central African Republic has joined the large number of countries already participating in the GDDS. The commitment being made by the Central African Republic to improve statistics is an important one, allowing the country to take full advantage of this framework for developing their economic, financial, and socio-demographic data."