World Economic Outlook (WEO) - Frequently Asked Questions

World Economic Outlook

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World Economic Outlook (WEO) - Frequently Asked Questions

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Bibliographic details

• Authors: Country Groups

Overview and publication schedule

• Publication: World Economic Outlook (WEO) — Frequently Asked Questions.
• Last Updated: April 22, 2025.
• The WEO database and publication are updated and published twice a year, usually in April and October, as documentation for meetings of the International Monetary and Financial Committee and as the main instruments of the IMF's global surveillance activities.
• Official announcements on WEO release dates come from the IMF Communications department via IMF.org, email alerts, and other official channels. Past WEOs have been released on the Tuesdays prior to the Annual and Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group.

Interim updates and notification

• WEO Update: published in January and July between the two main WEO publications (April and October). The WEO Update includes the updated WEO Projections Overview (Table 1) and provides revised real GDP growth projections for two years for selected economies only. The full WEO database is not provided for the interim WEO report.
• Email notifications: users can subscribe to free e-mail notifications for WEO updates and news.

Data availability, coverage, and historical series

• No data are provided prior to 1980 due to verification difficulties; additional historical coverage may be available in the IMF Data Portal from other IMF publications.
• Forecast horizons:
  • WEO publishes 5-year forecasts for many but not all indicators and country groups.
  • For some indicators and country groups, only 2 years of forecast data are published.
• Historical WEO forecasts from April 1990 for select key indicators are compiled into one Excel file; other archived forecasts are available from April 1999 onward.
• All data that can be released to the public are incorporated into the WEO online database; missing values in table downloads and CSV files indicate unavailable data rather than a technical issue.
• At the country group level, the year of the publication is assumed to be the start of the forecast period; shaded/forecast years in the WEO report do not match the shaded/forecast years in the online database (report shading emphasizes the forecast period common to all countries).

Data methodology, revisions, and differences with other IMF datasets

• Forecast methodology: WEO uses a “bottom-up” approach—IMF country teams generate projections for individual countries which are aggregated and iterated until convergence.
• Country-team-specific methods: because forecasts are made by individual country teams, methodology can vary by country and series.
• Revisions:
  • Historical data are updated continually as new information becomes available; structural breaks may be adjusted using splicing and other techniques.
  • IMF staff estimates are used as proxies when complete information is unavailable.
  • The number and timing of revisions are country specific; the date of the last update is indicated in the “Country/Series-specific Notes” column of the “By Country” file under the “Entire Dataset” option.
• Differences with IFS and national sources:
  • WEO data reflect information gathered for the WEO exercises by IMF country desk officers; IFS data are gathered as part of an ongoing member country reporting process.
  • Differences arise from data collection techniques, methodology, timing, coverage decisions by country desk officers, and use of staff estimates.
  • Statement on revisions and deviations from other official sources is provided in the WEO database disclaimer.

Data types, formats, and technical guidance

• Frequency: WEO online database does not publish monthly or quarterly data.
• Download format: query files are tab-separated (tsv). If the comma is selected as decimal separator, spreadsheet import settings may need adjustment to interpret comma as decimal separator rather than thousands separator.
• Actual vs. estimated vs. projected:
  • In table reports, shaded cells indicate IMF staff estimates; non-shaded cells indicate actual data.
  • The downloadable tab-delimited file includes a column specifying the year of the latest actual data (or a zero if the entire series is estimated).
• Constant-price base years: base-year information for national accounts at constant prices is country specific and gathered from IMF country desk officers; available in the Country Information document, the “Country/Series-specific Notes” column, or Table G of the Statistical Appendix.
• GDP fiscal-year series: “Gross domestic product corresponding to fiscal year, current prices” refers to GDP over the same period as a country’s fiscal data (used to express fiscal data as percent of GDP).

Purchasing-power-parity (PPP) methodology and PPP-based aggregates

• Definition: PPP exchange rate expressed in the WEO online database as national currency per current international dollar.
• PPP source and timing:
  • WEO PPP exchange rates are based on the ICP’s 2017–21 PPPs and are extended backwards and forwards by growth in relative GDP deflators (country deflator divided by U.S. deflator).
  • Current PPP implied conversion rates come from the PPPs reported in the ICP 2021 report published in May 2024.
• Updating rule:
  • PPP implied conversion rate is updated when ICP releases estimates for the most recent survey year.
  • PPP implied conversion rates for non-survey years are updated at every WEO release using the most recent nominal GDP and relative GDP deflators.
  • GDP based on PPP valuation of country GDP series is updated using data in the most recent WEO.
• Use of PPP in aggregates:
  • Country group aggregates relating to the domestic economy are weighted by GDP valued at PPPs (series PPPGDP) as a share of world total or country group total.
  • PPPGDP weights are time-varying; country group composites are calculated only when 90 percent or more of the weighted group data is represented, unless noted otherwise.
• Specific aggregate calculations:
  • World Output (series NGDP_RPCH) uses PPP GDP weights.
  • “World Growth Based on Market Exchange Rates” (series NGDP_RPCHMK in published dataset) uses an alternative weight calculated as the three-year trailing average of nominal GDP in U.S. dollars (NGDPD).
  • Inflation aggregates for EMDE groups are calculated as geometric averages using logarithmic differences, log(CPIt)-log(CPIt-1), as an exception for EMDE-related groups and the world.

Country group composition and classification

• Country groups: lists of country group compositions are provided in the Groups and Aggregates document and are accessible via the WEO database query interface.
• Advanced vs. emerging market and developing economies:
  • Main classification criteria: (1) per capita income level, (2) export diversification (e.g., oil exporters with high per capita GDP may not qualify as advanced if ~70% of exports are oil), and (3) degree of integration into the global financial system.
  • Classification is not based on strict rules; it is intended to facilitate analysis and has evolved over time. Reclassification occurs when changes in those criteria are sufficiently large.
  • Example: Lithuania’s adoption of the euro warranted reclassification from an emerging market and developing economy to an advanced economy.
• Special group definitions:
  • Low-income developing countries (LIDCs): per capita income levels below a threshold (based on $2,700 in 2017 as measured by the World Bank’s Atlas method and updated following new information in early 2024), structural features consistent with limited development, and limited external financial linkages.
  • Emerging market and middle-income economies (EMMIEs): emerging market and developing economies not classified as LIDCs.
• Aggregates and changing memberships:
  • Historical aggregated EU data are updated to include current EU member countries throughout the entire time period at the time of publication (example: EU-27 became EU-28 in 2013; as of February 1, 2020, the United Kingdom is no longer part of the European Union and is excluded from EU composites starting with the April 2020 WEO).

Debt, balances, and other series definitions

• General government gross debt: all liabilities requiring payment of interest and/or principal (SDRs, currency and deposits, debt securities, loans, insurance, pensions and standardized guarantee schemes, other accounts payable), excluding equity and investment fund shares, financial derivatives, and employee stock options.
• General government net debt: gross debt minus financial assets in the form of debt instruments (currency and deposits, debt securities, loans, insurance, pensions and standardized guarantee schemes, other accounts receivable); data are consolidated to avoid double counting.
• World current account balance: in principle global current accounts should sum to zero; observed discrepancies reflect factors such as transportation lags, underreporting of investment income, asymmetric valuation, and data quality issues.

Contact points and support channels

• Questions about WEO: submit using the WEO Data Question Form.
• Other contacts:
  • IMF DATA databases (IFS, BOPS, DOTS, GFS): datahelp@imf.org
  • IMF Primary Commodity Prices: commodities@imf.org
  • Fiscal Monitor: fiscalmonitor@imf.org
  • Global Financial Stability Report (GFSR): GFSRquery@imf.org
  • G-20 Surveillance Note: resmsra@imf.org
  • All other IMF publications and publication dates: publications@imf.org

Content in this bundle

• Country Information April 2025
  • Country Information April 2025 (Markdown version)
  • Country Information April 2025 (PDF)
• Weohistorical (XLSX)
• 93weoss3 (PDF)
• September 2003 World Economic Outlook (PDF)

References

• https://meetings.imf.org/en/Index.
• https://www.imf.org/en/publications/weo).
• https://www.imf.org/en/About/copyright-and-terms.
• https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/weo-database/Disclaimer.
• Countriestab on the IMF website, click on a country and you will see a ”Contact Us” link on the left side.
• IMF DATAincluding International Financial Statistics (IFS), Balance of Payments Statistics (BOPS), Direction of Trade Statistics (DOTS), and Government Finance Statistics (GFS) –
• archived WEO databases web pagesdating back to the April 1999 WEO.
• https://www.imf.org/en/Research/commodity-prices. You may also e-mail them at