Press Release No. 09/62

Press Release: IMF Releases Fourth Annual Report on the Implementation of the Transparency Policy: Publication Rates Remain High

March 5, 2009

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) today released its annual report on Key Trends in the Implementation of the Transparency Policy, which provides factual information on publication rates by type of document, lags between Executive Board discussion and publication, recourse to deletions, and publication behavior of member countries.

The report shows that member countries' publication performance trended higher in 2008. The publication rate across country staff reports was, at 83 percent, in line with earlier years. The categories of documents that showed increased publication rates included requests for use of Fund resources (96 percent of such reports were published in 2008 compared to 85 percent in 2007) and Article IV Public Information Notices (PINs) (97 percent of members chose to release these summaries of the Executive Board's views after Board discussions of their country, compared to 93 percent in 2007). The average lag between Board discussion and publication for country staff report fell to 32 days in 2008 from 37 days in 2007, and the rate of recourse of member countries to allowable deletions from staff reports was stable, at 9 percent of all published staff reports.

The Fund's transparency policy—which establishes the rules governing publication of documents—designates the publication status of most categories of Board documents as "voluntary but presumed", meaning that publication requires the member's explicit consent but is expected to take place within 30 days following the Board discussion.

This report responds to a request by the Executive Board in 2005 for regular updates of information on the implementation of the Fund's transparency policy, and features data on documents discussed by the Board between November 1, 2007 and October 31, 2008, and published by December 31, 2008. These documents include, in particular, staff reports on bilateral surveillance (Article IV consultations) and use of Fund resources, as well as country policy intention documents and IMF policy papers.