Quarterly Update on the SDDS Archive

Standards and Codes

January 25, 2001

•  Progress continued in meeting the SDDS requirements, especially
   timeliness of dissemination for monthly data.

Observance Status

By the end of the fourth quarter, 35 of the 47 subscribers met the SDDS specifications for the coverage, periodicity and timeliness of the data and for the dissemination of advance release calendars (ARCs), compared with 33 subscribers at the end of the third quarter (Table 1).¹

A complete list of subscribers indicating those in observance may be accessed on the Fund's Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board (DSBB) at http://dsbb.imf.org/Applications/web/sddscountrylist/.

Table 1: SDDS Indicators
Indicator	As stated at Third Review March 29, 2000	As of Sept. 30, 2000	As of Dec. 31, 2000
Number of subscribers	47	47	47
Subscribers in observance1	13	33	35
Countries working with IMF Staff for possible subscription	7	8	8
Subscribers with NSDP web sites	42	47	47
Hyperlinks from the DSBB to the NSDP	19	36	38
Subscribers with summary methodologies posted	38	41	43
Number of summary methodologies posted	167	338	419
Subscribers disclosing data based on the reserves template	7	42	44
1Observance of the externally monitorable elements of the SDDS, i.e., the coverage, periodicity, and timeliness of the data and the use of advance release calendars. Other elements of the SDDS dealing with the integrity and quality of the data are on a self-disclosure basis, with subscribers providing information on which users can make their own judgments.

Monitoring

Observance of the data dimension and of the ARCs improved during the fourth quarter. As several subscribers introduced their NSDPs and hyperlinks from the DSBB to these sites were established, monitoring by Fund staff became more comprehensive and effective. Hyperlinks were opened for an additional six subscribers, bringing the total to 38 (Table 1). The list of subscribers at http://dsbb.imf.org/Applications/web/sddscountrylist/ shows those with hyperlinks in italics.

In the fourth quarter more subscribers met the timeliness requirements for the dissemination of monthly data (Table 2). The most dramatic improvement in timeliness was for the analytical accounts of the central bank and for the production index, while the least improvement was for consumer prices. Although all data categories were monitored, the dissemination of lower-frequency data (quarterly and annual) will need to be monitored over a longer time period before a meaningful assessment of observance can be made.

Table 2. Monitoring of Observance of the SDDS, October-December 2000 Number of Subscribers Disseminating Monthly Data on Time
Data Categories	October	November	December
Production index	30	33	37
Consumer prices	41	36	37
Producer prices	38	34	39
Central government operations	27	32	31
Analytical accounts of the banking sector	34	37	37
Analytical accounts of the central bank	32	35	42
Official reserves	39	36	41
Reserves template	37	41	41
Merchandise trade	31	37	37

Other DSBB Developments

During the fourth quarter, an additional 81 summary methodology statements were posted on the DSBB, bringing the total number to 419 for 43 subscribers. These statements provide detailed information on the sources and methods used to compile the SDDS data categories and are a popular feature of the DSBB. A complete listing of the countries and data categories for which summary methodology statements have been posted can be accessed at http://dsbb.imf.org/summeth.htm, and /or http://dsbb.imf.org/sumdata.html.

SDDS Regional Seminars

Three SDDS regional seminars were held by the IMF Statistics Department during the fourth quarter of 2000 in Germany, Singapore and Chile, for country coordinators representing a total of 42 subscribers and 8 potential subscribers. The first seminar, hosted by the European Central Bank (ECB), was held in Frankfurt during November 14-15, 2000. The second seminar was held at the IMF-Singapore Regional Training Institute during November 20-21, and the Central Bank of Chile hosted the third seminar, in Santiago during December 13-14. Regional organizations were also represented at these seminars.

The two-day seminars provided a forum to review recent changes in the operations of the SDDS, including staff monitoring, and an opportunity for coordinators to discuss their experiences in implementing the standard and make suggestions for improving its operation.

Many coordinators indicated that their country subscribed to the SDDS to strengthen its image abroad in order to preserve the flow of capital; others saw the SDDS as a framework for statistical development. Also, coordinators noted that subscription had heightened awareness among compilers of international statistical concepts and, thereby, promoted greater transparency and comparability of data. Several coordinators also stated that the dissemination of summary methodologies led to increased scrutiny of procedures and documentation. Similarly, potential subscribers noted benefits to their statistical systems arising from preparatory work for subscription such as enhanced inter-institutional coordination.

The seminar also addressed data quality, taking as its starting point the SDDS requirement for the disclosure of information on which a data user could make an informed judgment on the suitability of data for a particular use and moving on to more recent work within the Fund in developing Data Quality Assessment Frameworks (DQAF). The DQAFs form a proactive approach to the assessment of data quality by providing users with a set of tools to organize and process information for making judgments on quality. More information on the Fund's work on data quality assessments can be found at http://dsbb.imf.org/Applications/web/dqrs/dqrshome/.

The seminar also focused on how information technology will impact the SDDS in the future, in particular enhancements of the DSBB. Chief among these enhancements will be improved query and search facilities and the eventual introduction of an open data exchange system using Extensible Markup Language (XML). Such a system would permit the DSBB to be used as a portal to other websites, thus greatly expanding the amount of information (both metadata and data) available to users.

Reserves template

As of December 31, 44 of 47 SDDS subscribers had begun disseminating the data template on international reserves and foreign currency liquidity approved by the Executive Board in March 1999.¹ With one exception, subscribers have chosen the Internet as the medium of dissemination and their websites are accessible at http://dsbb.imf.org/Applications/web/reservestemplate/ .

On October 13, 2000 the Fund opened a publicly available website containing template data on international reserves and foreign currency liquidity that have been submitted by both SDDS subscribers and non-subscribers on a voluntary basis. Through this website the Fund re-disseminates the template data in a common format and a common currency (the U.S. dollar) to facilitate both users' access to the data and comparability of the data across countries. The re-dissemination of the template data by the Fund does not constitute endorsement of the quality of the data by the Fund.