About the World Economic Outlook (WEO) Database

The WEO database is created during the biannual World Economic Outlook (WEO) exercise, which begins in January and June of each year and results in the WEO publication, which is released in May and October. Selected series that are available in the publication are now available on this website at the time of the release of the WEO press version (late April and September). If necessary, these figures will be revised in order to maintain consistency with the published World Economic Outlook. 

The WEO exercise is coordinated by the World Economic Studies Division in the Research Department. The projections and analysis contained in the World Economic Outlook are an integral element of the IMF's ongoing surveillance of economic development and policies in its member countries and of the global economic system. The survey of prospects and policies is the product of a comprehensive interdepartmental review of world economic developments, which draws primarily on the information IMF staff gathers through its consultations with member countries.

WEO projections are prepared by the country desk economists in area departments on the basis of internationally consistent assumptions about world economic activity, exchange rates, and conditions in international financial and commodity markets. For approximately 50 of the largest economies, referred to as Group A countries and which account for 90 percent of world output, the projections are updated for each WEO exercise. Other countries provide updates and revisions to their projections both during the WEO exercise and at the time of the IMF's regular Article IV consultations with member countries or in connection with the use of Fund resources, unless world developments necessitate more frequent updates.

How the WEO estimates differ from those in International Financial Statistics

The data appearing in the World Economic Outlook are provided to the Research Department at the time of the WEO exercise, not on a continual basis. The historical data and projections are based upon the information gathered by the IMF country desk economists in the context of their missions and ongoing analysis of the evolving situation in member countries; projections are staff estimates. The data published in the Statistics Department’s International Financial Statistics and CD-ROM product are gathered as part of an ongoing data collection effort in which member country statistical agencies provide public statistics to the IMF. Because of the difference in data collection techniques, methodological issues, focus, and timing, the estimates in International Financial Statistics and the World Economic Outlook can differ.

Data Conventions

Please note the following:

1. Domestic economy series are expressed in billions of national currency units.
2. External accounts series are expressed in billions of U.S. dollars.
3. Indexes are generally based on 1995.

WEO group aggregate data are expressed in a manner that reflects the aggregation method applied:

1. Domestic economy series are in index form; the focus of the series is its percentage change.
2. External account series are in billions of U.S. dollars.

For details about each of the variables available please refer to About the Data Set .

Group A Countries

Algeria Argentina Australia Bangladesh Brazil Cameroon Canada Chile China Colombia Congo, Democratic    Republic of Côte d'Ivoire Egypt France Germany

India Indonesia Iran, Islamic    Republic of Israel Italy Japan Kazakhstan Kenya Korea Malaysia Mexico Morocco Netherlands Nigeria Pakistan

Philippines Poland Russia Saudi Arabia South Africa Spain Sudan Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Province    of China Thailand Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom United States Venezuela

 
About the Data Set

Selected World Aggregates

World aggregates for the following annual series are provided from 1970:

• Real gross domestic product (annual percent change)
• Gross domestic product (values at market exchange rates and purchasing power parity [PPP] exchange rates)
• Inflation (annual percent change)
• World trade volume of goods and services (annual percent change)
• World exports of goods and services (billions of U.S. dollars)
• World imports of goods and services (billions of U.S. dollars)

Please note:

1. In many cases no level data exist for group aggregates because growth rates are aggregates.

    

Real Gross Domestic Product (annual percent change)

Annual percentages of real GDP are year-on-year changes.

Please note:

1. Data through 1991 apply to west Germany only.
2. For developing countries, figures for recent years are IMF staff estimates. 
3. For countries in transition, data for some countries refer to real net material product (NMP) or are estimates based on NMP. For many countries, figures for recent years are IMF staff estimates. The figures should be interpreted only as indicative of broad orders of magnitude because reliable, comparable data are not generally available. In particular, the growth of output of new private enterprises or of the informal economy is not fully reflected in the recent figures.
4. In many cases no level data exist for group aggregates because growth rates are aggregates of percent changes rather than levels.

    

Real Gross Domestic Product, Constant Prices (local currencies)

Real GDP is expressed in billions of national currency units; the base year is country-specific. The last available year is consistent with that which appears in the statistical tables in the WEO publication.

Gross Domestic Product, Current Prices (local currencies)

GDP is expressed in billions of national currency units. The last available year is consistent with that which appears for GDP in constant prices in the statistical tables in the WEO publication.

Gross Domestic Product in U.S. Dollars

GDP is expressed in billions of U.S. dollars. These values are based upon GDP in national currency and the exchange rate projections provided by the country desk economists for developing and transition countries. Exchanges rates for advanced economies are set as one part of the WEO assumptions during the WEO exercise. The last available year is consistent with that which appears for GDP in constant prices in the statistical tables in the WEO publication.

Per Capita Gross Domestic Product, Constant Prices (local currency per person)

GDP is expressed in constant national currencies per person. Data are derived by dividing constant price GDP by the total population. The last available year is consistent with that which appears for GDP in the statistical tables of the WEO publication.

Per Capita Gross Domestic Product, Current Prices (local currency per person)

GDP is expressed in current national currencies per person. Data are derived by dividing current price GDP by the total population. The last available year is consistent with that which appears for GDP in the statistical tables of the WEO publication.

Per Capita Gross Domestic Product, Current Prices (U.S. dollars per person)

GDP is expressed in current U.S. dollars per person. Data are derived by first converting GDP in local currencies to U.S. dollars and then dividing GDP by the total population. The last available year is consistent with that which appears for GDP in the statistical tables of the WEO publication.

Shares of Aggregate GDP Based on Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) Valuation of Country GDP

This data form the basis for the country weights used to generate the World Economic Outlook country group composites for the domestic economy. The data are expressed as percent of the world total.

Please note:

1. The IMF is not a primary source for purchasing power parity (PPP) data. WEO weights have been created from primary sources and are used solely for purposes of generating country group composites. For primary source information, please refer to one of the following sources: the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Bank, or the Penn World Tables.
2. For further information see Box A.1 in the April 2000 World Economic Outlook for a summary of the revised PPP-based weights, and Annex IV of the May 1993 World Economic Outlook . See also Anne Marie Gulde and Marianne Schulze-Ghattas, "Purchasing Power Parity Based Weights for the World Economic Outlook," in Staff Studies for the World Economic Outlook (Washington: IMF, December 1993), pp. 106-23.

    

Inflation

Data for inflation are annual percentage change averages for the year, not end-of-period data.

Please note:

1. For many developing countries, figures for recent years are IMF staff estimates. Data for some countries are for fiscal years.
2. For many countries in transition, inflation for the earlier years is measured on the basis of a retail price index. Consumer price indices with a broader and more up-to-date coverage are typically used for more recent years.

    

Output Gaps

Output gaps are calculated as actual GDP less potential GDP as a percent of potential GDP. Estimates of output gaps are subject to a significant margin of uncertainty. For a discussion of approaches to calculating potential output, see Paula R. De Masi, "IMF Estimates of Potential Output: Theory and Practice," in Staff Studies for the World Economic Outlook (Washington: IMF, December 1997), pp. 40-46.

Please note:

1. Data through 1991 apply to west Germany only.

Net Capital Flows

Net private capital flows comprise net direct investment, net portfolio investment, and other long- and short-term net investment flows including official and private borrowing. The composition of the group aggregates appearing in the table "Emerging Market Economies: Net Capital Flows" differs from the standard WEO groups. "Total Emerging Markets" includes developing countries, countries in transition, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan Province of China, and Israel. Please refer to the notes below for additional details.

The series in the data file are organized as they appear in the statistical table:

Net Private capital flows, net
   Net direct investment, net
   Net portfolio investment, net
   Other net investment 
Net official flows 
Change in reserves
Memorandum
Current account

Please note:

1. Because of data limitations, "other net investment" may include some official flows.
2. The total excludes Hong Kong SAR.
3. Change in reserves: a minus sign indicates an increase.
4. The difference between the current account and the sum of net private capital flows, net official flows, and change in reserves is the capital account and errors and omissions. 
5. "Asia" includes Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan Province of China. Data for Hong Kong SAR are not available.
6. "Crisis countries" includes Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand.
7. "Middle East and Europe" includes Israel. 

Queries about the WEO database should be sent to the e-mail address weo@imf.org.

What Data Are Available

This site provides the most frequently requested information from the WEO database consistent with the data published in the World Economic Outlook. Please note the following:

1. The end dates of country-specific series correspond to those appearing in the WEO publication.
2. Not all of the data appearing in the WEO publication are disseminated through this site.
3. Over time, additional information may be released.
4. Customized requests for WEO data will no longer be filled.

Queries about the WEO database should be sent to the e-mail address WEO@IMF.ORG.

How To Use These Files

The data tables, in the WEO Database Index, are presented in Comma Delimited, CSV text file format. Although this file format allows for the data table to be easily retrieved into a variety of applications, they are best viewed within one that will allow one to easily manipulate data that is in columnar format. Common examples of such applications are those that are used to create spreadsheets and databases.

If you don't have access to either a spreadsheet or a database application, you can also retrieve the data table file into either an ASCII text-editing or a word-processing application. However, since neither of these two application types has the facility to easily format the width of the data columns, quite a bit of manual reformatting will be required to properly view the data.

Before you save the data table to disk, it is recommended that you view it first to make sure that it contains the data you are interested in.

To View a Data Table

To view a data table, within your browser window, click on the CSV link that is located just to the right of the table name.

Alternatively, you can right-click on the CSV link and then select "Open in New Window." This viewing method is particularly useful if you want to open several tables for viewing at the same time. Simply repeat the steps for each table you want to open for viewing.

File Viewing Tip: If you find that the table is wider than can be viewed within the width of your screen, use your browser's Search key to locate key information that you are looking for.

 

To Save a Data Table to Disk

To save a data table to disk, highlight the CSV link, right-click, and then select "Save Target As." Make sure that you save the file as a CSV Text Document.

File Saving Tip: If you want to save the data table to a diskette, check its file size beforehand to confirm that it is small enough to fit on the diskette. Open the data table for viewing. Click on File/Properties. (Alternatively, you can right-click anywhere within the table and select "Properties".) Included in the properties displayed will be the file's size.

 

To Retrieve a Data Table in to a Spreadsheet Application or Import the Data Table into a Database Application

To retrieve the data table into a spreadsheet application, proceed with the steps that you normally go through to open an existing spreadsheet.

To import the data table into a database, create a new table and then import the data table file into the newly created database table.

Note that because the data table is formatted as a CSV Text Document, you may be prompted to set the file import options, which will ensure that the data is properly formatted when the file is retrieved into the spreadsheet or imported into the database table. The key file import options and their associated values are listed in the table below.

Import Option	Value
Data Type	Comma Delimited
File Origin	Windows ANSI
Text Qualifier	{"}
Field Delimiter	{,}
First Row	Field Names

Additionally, please note that null field values are represented by the phrase "n.a." You may need to replace all instances of "n.a." with a blank field before importing the data table into your spreadsheet/database.

Tips: Once you've retrieved/imported the data table, immediately save it to disk before making any formatting changes. This will avoid the need to reimport it should you run into problems formatting the table. Remember to save the file in the native format of the spreadsheet/database package rather than as a text file. All fields, except those that contain numbers, should be specified as field type = text. Numeric fields that contain "n.a." field values should have a numeric field type. When selecting which numeric field type to use, keep in mind that the field type you select will determine the decimal precision of the field. Decimal precision will, in turn, determine the amount of disk space that is allocated to the data stored in that field. In general, the greater the degree of decimal precision required, the more disk space that is needed to store the field value. If the overall size of the database is of a programmatic concern to you, choose your numeric fields carefully. To print the entire data table, you may need to maximize your page format settings as follows:
Format Setting	Value
Page Size	Legal
Page Orientation	Landscape
Font Type	Any proportional font such as Line Printer, Arial, or Universe. A fixed font such as Times Roman or Courier will increase the required line length.
Font Size	8 point or smaller
Margins	Left = 0" Right = 0"	Actual margin width will be set to the lowest default value for your printer.

To Retrieve a Data Table into an ASCII Text Editor or Word-Processing Application

To retrieve the data table into either an ASCII text editor or word-processing application, proceed with the steps that you normally go through to open a text file or document.

If you are retrieving the data table into a word-processing application, you may be prompted to convert the file format. If yes, indicate that you are converting from "ASCII Text."

Tips for Retrieving a Data Table into a Word-Processing Application: Once you've retrieved/imported the data table, immediately save it to disk before making any formatting changes. This will avoid the need to reimport it should you run into problems formatting the table. Remember to save the file in the native format of the spreadsheet/database package rather than as a text file. Since the data columns are delimited with commas, you can search and replace all instances of commas with a Tab command. This will automatically align the columns for easier reading. To view and/or print an entire data table, you may need to adjust the document's tab settings so that the columns display correctly. Also, you may need to maximize your page format settings as follows:
Format Setting	Value
Page Size	Legal
Page Orientation	Landscape
Font Type	Any proportional font such as Line Printer, Arial, or Universe. A fixed font such as Times Roman or Courier will increase the required line length.
Font Size	8 point or smaller
Margins	Left = 0" Right = 0"	Actual margin width will be set to the lowest default value for your printer.