Saudi Arabia Subscribes to the IMFs Special Data Dissemination Standard

IMF News, September 18, 2019

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Canonical URL: Saudi Arabia Subscribes to the IMFs Special Data Dissemination Standard

Press Release No. 19/338 dated September 18, 2019 announces that Saudi Arabia subscribed to the International Monetary Fund’s Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS).
Subscription is described as "a major step forward for official statistics in the country."
Expected effects:
- Enhance the country’s availability of timely and comprehensive statistics.
- Contribute to the pursuit of sound macroeconomic policies.

Saudi Arabia is noted as the first SDDS subscriber among the G20 SDDS countries to adopt the SDMX technology in the National Summary Data Page (NSDP).
The NSDP is described as a "one-stop online data publication portal" that facilitates dissemination in both human- and machine-readable (SDMX) formats.

Mr. Louis Marc Ducharme, Chief Statistician and Data Officer, and Director of the Statistics Department of the IMF, congratulated the authorities for the milestone and stated: “The subscription to the SDDS underscores Saudi Arabia’s strong commitment to data transparency as well as to the adoption of international best practices in statistics.”
Abdulaziz Alrasheed, the Saudi Assistant Minister for International Financial Affairs and Fiscal Policies, said: “Saudi Arabia and the IMF have been working continuously to improve official statistics, and subscription to the SDDS is an important milestone ahead of Saudi Arabia G20 Presidency.”
Abdulaziz Alrasheed added: “The subscription to SDDS is fully in line with our Vision 2030 and objective of embracing transparency, with a view to enhance macroeconomic policies and ensure well-informed investment and policy decisions. Indeed, we are committed to further strengthening our statistical system and data transparency, in line with best practices.”

The SDDS was established by the IMF in March 1996.
Purpose and features:
- Guides members in the provision of economic and financial data to the public.
- Enhances the availability of timely statistics according to an advance release calendar.
- Contributes to sound macroeconomic policies and the proper functioning of financial markets.
- Subscription is voluntary; a subscribing member commits to observe the standard and to provide information (metadata) about data dissemination practices.
- Metadata and dissemination practices are made publicly available on the IMF's Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board (DSBB).
The DSBB now provides comprehensive documentation in English on the statistical practices for the SDDS data categories, hyperlinked to the country data included in the National Summary Data Page, which is maintained by Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Finance.

Saudi Arabia’s SDDS information is available at https://dsbb.imf.org/sdds/country/SAU/category
Media contact listed:
- IMF Communications Department, MEDIA RELATIONS
- PRESS OFFICER: Pemba Sherpa
- Phone: +1 202 623-7100
- Email: MEDIA@IMF.org
- @IMFSpokesperson

Press Release No. 19/338, September 18, 2019 — IMF Communications Department.