Press Release No. 04/28

Press Release: Uruguay Subscribes to the IMF's Special Data Dissemination Standard

February 18, 2004

Uruguay has become the 56th subscriber to the International Monetary Fund's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS), marking a major step forward in the development of the country's statistical system and underscoring its commitment to transparency. The Uruguayan authorities view subscription as the culmination of many initiatives to improve their data dissemination practices. Uruguay is the 10^th country in Latin America to subscribe to the SDDS, and the third country of the South Common Market (MERCOSUR) after Argentina and Brazil.

The SDDS, which was established by the IMF in March 1996, is intended to guide members in the provision of their economic and financial data to the public. Subscription to the SDDS is expected to enhance the availability of timely and comprehensive statistics and thereby contribute to the pursuit of sound macroeconomic policies and the improved functioning of financial markets. The SDDS identifies four dimensions of data dissemination—the data: coverage, periodicity, and timeliness; access by the public; the integrity of the disseminated data; and the quality of the disseminated data. Although subscription is voluntary, a subscribing member commits to observe the standard and to provide information (metadata) to the IMF about its data dissemination practices. This information is made publicly available on the IMF's Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board's (DSBB).

Since a statistical assessment mission in November 1999, Uruguay has made significant progress to bring its official statistics in line with international standards. This progress has been supported by IMF technical assistance missions and the completion of a data module of the Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes.

The DSBB now provides comprehensive documentation in English on Uruguay's statistical practices for SDDS data categories, hyperlinked to actual country data included in the mandatory National Summary Data Page maintained by the Central Bank of Uruguay.