Changes to the Database

World Economic Outlook Database

Last Updated: October 01, 2009

The World Economic Outlook (WEO) database contains selected macroeconomic data series from the statistical appendix of the World Economic Outlook report, which presents the IMF staff's analysis and projections of economic developments at the global level, in major country groups and in many individual countries. The WEO is released in April and September/October each year.

October 2009

Starting with the October 2009 World Economic Outlook, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brunei Darussalam, Eritrea, Iraq, Liberia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Timor-Leste are included in the regional and analytical group compositions.
Zimbabwe has been returned to the group compositions as a result of recent price stabilization, which facilitates the measurement of macroeconomic variables and allows for cross-country data comparisons.
The Zimbabwe dollar ceased circulating in early 2009. Data are based on staff estimates of price and exchange rate developments in U.S. dollars.
Georgia officially withdrew from the Commonwealth of Independent States on August 18, 2009, but is included in the Commonwealth of Independent States group for reasons of geography and similarities in economic structure.
Singapore now reports chain-weighted national account data.
Capital flows are now referred to as financial flows.
Government finance data and the output gap for G7 economies and the euro area group are shown through 2014.

April 2009

Country weights, calculated as nominal GDP at purchasing-power-parity exchange rates in percent of the global GDP, have been updated to reflect revisions to nominal GDP.
On January 1, 2009, Slovak Republic became the sixteenth country to join the euro area. Additionally, Czech Republic and Slovak Republic are now included in the advanced economies group.
Data for Iraq are now included.
Guatemala, Israel, Korea, and Slovak Republic now report chain-weighted national accounts data.
On January 1, 2009, the Central Bank of Turkmenistan redenominated its currency by transforming 5,000 units of old manats into one unit of new manat.

October 2008

The following countries now report chain-weighted national accounts data: Bulgaria, Estonia, and Hong Kong SAR.

April 2008

Country weights used to construct aggregate data for groups of countries were revised to incorporate updated PPP exchange rates released by the World Bank.
Data is now available through 2013 for selected indicators.
On January 1, 2008, Cyprus and Malta joined the euro area. Additionally, Malta is now included in the advanced economies group.
Data for the Republic of Montenegro are now included.
Other emerging market and developing countries has been renamed Emerging and developing economies.
ASEAN-5 replaces ASEAN-4 with the addition of Vietnam.
Zimbabwe has been excluded from aggregated country group data.
Commodity price indices have been revised, and are now constructed using updated weights based on 2002-04 world trade data and a new base year of 2005. Please see the Energy and Commodities Surveillance Unit website for more details.

October 2007

Given recent trends, except for GDP in constant prices, it is not possible to forecast Zimbabwe's data with any precision for 2008. For country group consistency, Zimbabwe's data are excluded from relevant aggregated data.
Sudan redenominated its currency by transforming 100 units of Sudanese dinar into one unit of Sudanese pound.
The following countries now report chain-weighted national accounts data: Cyprus, France, and Malta.
Data for end-of-period Consumer Price Index for all countries and Employment for advanced economies have been added to the WEO database.

April 2007

On January 1, 2007, Slovenia became the 13th country to join the euro area, and is now included in the advanced economy group.
Also on January 1, 2007, Bulgaria and Romania became members of the European Union, enlarging the group to a total of 27 countries.
Netherlands Antilles has been excluded from the World Economic Outlook database following the decision by its five constituent islands to abandon the federation and will cease to exist in July 2007.
The purchasing power parity (PPP) weights have been updated to reflect the most up-to-date PPP conversion factor provided by the World Bank.
All Zimbabwe data in terms of national currency have been redenominated by a rate of 1:1,000.

September 2006

Data notes at the country, subject, and series levels are now made available for the WEO online database. These notes can be view by either hovering the mouse over or clicking on the icon.
Population projections are now included for all countries.
Data for Liberia are included.
Following the declaration of independence from Serbia by Montenegro, it has been determined that Serbia is the continuing state of the former state union of "Serbia and Montenegro" and that Montenegro has seceded as a new independent state.
Azerbaijan redenominated its currency by transforming 5,000 units of old manat (AZM) into one unit of new manat (AZN).

April 2006

The country composition of the fuel-exporting group has been revised to reflect the periodic update of the classification criteria.
The purchasing-power-parity (PPP) weights have been updated to reflect the most up-to-date PPP conversion factor provided by the World Bank.
The primary commodity indices are included in the WEO database.
Romania redenominated its currency by transforming 10,000 units of old Lei into one unit of new Leu.
Turkey revalued its currency by dropping six zeros from the old Lira. The new Turkish Lira (Yeni Türk Lirasi) became the new currency unit of Turkey.

September 2005

The country group composites for Savings and Investment are calculated as the sum of the U.S dollar values for the relevant individual countries. This differs from the calculations in the April 2005 and earlier World Economic Outlooks, where the composites were weighted by GDP valued at purchasing power parities (PPPs) as a share of total world GDP.
The Malagasy franc replaced the ariary as Madagascar’s currency, on January 1, 2005. One Malagasy franc was valued at 0.2 ariarys.

April 2005

Data for Afghanistan are included.
The base year for time series expressed in index form has been re-indexed to 2000.
El Salvador currency has been changed to dollar.
London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) series are included for euro area, Japan and the United states.
The purchasing power parity (PPP) weights have been updated to reflect the most up-to-date PPP conversion factor provided by the World Bank.

September 2004

The European Union added 10 new member nations on May 1, 2004, enlarging the group to a total of 25 countries. The new members are Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovak Republic, and Slovenia.

April 2004

The former three-way split of the world (advanced economies, developing countries, and countries in transition) has been revised to classify countries into two categories: “advanced economies” and “other emerging market and developing countries.” The analytical groups now comprise all countries from the former developing and transition groups. See the introduction to the Statistical Appendix for additional details.
Turkey and Malta are now included in Central and Eastern Europe.
Timor-Leste, Dem. Rep. of is now included in the WEO database.
Current account balance projections are now included for all countries.
The purchasing power parity (PPP) weights have been updated to reflect the new price surveys using the new benchmark year of 2000. See Box A2 for additional details.

September 2003

No changes were introduced.

April 2003

Growth and inflation projections for Serbia and Montenegro are included.

September 2002

Growth and inflation projections are included for all countries through 2003.

May 2002

Middle East, Malta, and Turkey is replaced by the title “Middle East and Turkey.” The country composition remains the same.

December 2001

No changes were introduced.

October 2001

No changes were introduced.

May 2001

Greece is included in the euro area.
Cyprus is included in Advanced Economies. It was previously included in Middle East and Europe under Developing Countries.
Asia is replaced by the title Developing Asia. There is no difference in the composition of the group.
Middle East and Europe is replaced by the title Middle East and Turkey. Cyprus is no longer included in the group.
Two new subgroups comprise Countries in Transition. Commonwealth of Independent States and Mongolia replaces Trancaucasus and central Asia and the composition of Central and Eastern Europe has changed: the group no longer includes Moldova and Ukraine. Please refer to the introduction to the Statistical Appendix for details on WEO regional and analytical groups.
Queries about the WEO database should be sent to the e-mail address weo@imf.org