Press Release No. 12/51

Press Release No. 12/51
February 16, 2012

Papua New Guinea began participating in the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF’s) General Data Dissemination System (GDDS) today, marking a major step forward in the development of its statistical system. Comprehensive information on Papua New Guinea’s statistical production and dissemination practices now appears on the IMF’s Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board.

To mark the occasion, Mr. Joseph Aka, the National Statistician of the National Statistical Office (NSO), noted: “Papua New Guinea is committed to use the IMF’s GDDS as a general framework to continue developing the national statistical system consistent with the best international practices. The participation of Papua New Guinea in the GDDS will also lead to the production and dissemination of more reliable and timely statistics.”

Ms. Adelheid Burgi-Schmelz, Director of the IMF Statistics Department, welcomed Papua New Guinea’s participation in the GDDS and observed: “Papua New Guinea’s participation in the GDDS is a major milestone in the country’s statistical development. I am confident that Papua New Guinea will benefit from using the GDDS as a framework for further development of its statistical system.”

The GDDS was established by the IMF in 1997. It provides a framework to help countries to develop their statistical systems to produce comprehensive and accurate statistics for policymaking and analysis. Papua New Guinea is the 104^th GDDS participant (excluding the countries that have graduated from the GDDS to the Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS).