Revisions Policy for Official Statistics: A Matter of Governance

IMF Working Papers, May 1, 2004

Source details

Canonical URL: Revisions Policy for Official Statistics: A Matter of Governance

Title: Revisions Policy for Official Statistics: A Matter of Governance
Authors: Carol S Carson, Sarmad Khawaja, Thomas K. Morrison
Date: May 1, 2004
Core proposition: Revisions are a routine part of disseminating quality macroeconomic data and national statistical agencies should have explicit revisions policies.
Rationale: Revisions arise not only to correct errors but also to incorporate better source data, update base periods, and make other improvements.
Evidence base: Country examples and views from policymakers and other users are used to support the argument for explicit revisions policies.

Revisions are routine and integral to maintaining data quality.
Revisions occur for multiple reasons:
- To correct errors.
- To incorporate better source data.
- To update base periods.
- To implement other methodological or data-source improvements.
Users (including policymakers) benefit from transparency and predictability in revision practices.
The paper presents good practices for the revision of macroeconomic data.

National statistical agencies should adopt explicit revisions policies.
Revisions policies should address:
- The types of revisions that will occur (error corrections, source-data updates, base-period updates, methodological improvements).
- Communication and transparency to data users and policymakers about revisions.
- Procedures to ensure reproducibility and accountability in revision processes.

Subject: Balance of payments statistics, Data Quality Assessment Framework (DQAF), Government finance statistics, Labor, National accounts
Keywords: current account, data user, revised data, revisions policy, WP