14th IMF Statistical Forum: Measuring the Economy in the Era of Big Data and AI
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Forum overview
- The International Monetary Fund will hold the 14th IMF Statistical Forum from November 18 to 19, 2026, in Washington, D.C., USA.
- Purpose: to bring together researchers, policymakers, national statistical offices, central banks, international organizations, and private-sector experts to discuss how big data and AI are reshaping economic measurement, expanding information for policy analysis, and transforming statistical production.
- Framing: economic measurement is described as being at an "inflection point" where big data and AI enable real-time indicators, granular distributional data, early-warning signals for financial and fiscal stress, and geospatially precise measures previously unobservable at scale.
- Central challenge highlighted: integrating new data sources and AI-enabled methods while preserving data quality, transparency, governance, and trust that underpin official statistics.
Call for papers, deadlines, and editorial timeline
- Abstract submission requirements:
- Abstract length: 250 words maximum.
- Abstract should describe the main ideas of the proposed paper.
- Submission and manuscript timeline:
- Proposal deadline: August 7, 2026.
- Authors of selected proposals will be contacted by August 21, 2026.
- Deadline for submitting a first draft of the paper: September 18, 2026.
- Final version of the paper and presentation due no later than October 16, 2026.
- Travel support: travel and hotel expenses of the presenting author will be covered by the Forum organizers.
Topics and thematic sessions of interest
- The Program Committee welcomes empirical, methodological, and applied work on topics including, but not limited to:
- New fiscal, financial, and monetary datasets developed using big data and AI, including real-time monitoring of economic conditions, financial vulnerabilities, inflation dynamics, and policy transmission.
- Alternative, high-frequency, and AI-enabled data sources for macroeconomic, trade, and industrial policy analysis, including new approaches to measuring economic activity, supply chains, prices, production, resilience, and structural change.
- The evolving role of non-official and quasi-official data producers in the statistical ecosystem, including issues of quality, transparency, methodological rigor, governance, continuity, and trust.
- Integration of big data and AI into regular statistical production: infrastructure, methodologies, organizational change, skills, governance, and risk management.
- Data quality, transparency, explainability, and trust in AI-enabled economic measurement.
- Public-private partnerships and new models for data sharing and statistical collaboration.
- Novel approaches to measuring the digital economy, climate-related risks, financial interconnectedness, and distributional outcomes.
- Approaches to measuring the AI economy, AI productivity gains, AI adoption and data as an asset.
- Session topics (tentative):
- Session II: New Data, New Policy Options: Statistics for Fiscal, Financial, and Monetary Policy
- Session III: New Data, New Policy Options: Big Data and AI for Macroeconomic, Trade, and Industrial Policy
- Session VI: Who Produces Statistics? The Expanding Data Ecosystem
- Session VII: From Pilots to Production — Integrating Big Data and AI into Statistical Production
- Session VII: Measuring AI and Big Data
- Evaluation criteria used by the Program Committee:
- Relevance to the theme and areas of interest of the Forum
- Originality
- Analytical rigor
- Feasibility
- Operational relevance
- Policy significance
Practical submission guidelines
- Required proposal format fields:
- Title of Paper
- Name of speaker(s)
- Affiliation of speaker(s)
- Abstract text (max 250 words)
- Contact details: Name; Telephone number; Email address
- Document formatting:
- Font size: 12-point throughout
- Justification: Left margin only, no indentations
- Line spacing: Text should be single spaced
- Abstract text: maximum of 250 words
- File format: MS-Word as a .doc or .docx document
- File naming: use the contact author’s name as the name of the attached file
- Submission channel: Send your paper proposal by email to IMFStatisticalForum@imf.org
Program highlights and schedule (selected items and session descriptions)
- Day 1 (November 18, 2026) — Opening themes
- 8:30 – 9:00: Registration and Light Breakfast
- 9:00 – 9:10: Welcoming Remarks — Senior IMF Management
- 9:10 – 9:20: Introduction to the Forum — Director, IMF Statistics Department
- 9:20 – 10:15: Session I: Opening Keynote — The Measurement Inflection Point: Economic Statistics in the Era of Big Data and AI
- Focus: how new data sources, advanced computational methods, and AI-enabled tools expand what can be known about an economy, the speed of knowledge, and the level of detail.
- 10:45 – 12:15: Session II: New Data, New Policy Options: Statistics for Fiscal, Financial, and Monetary Policy
- Topics: real-time monitoring of revenues and expenditures; tax compliance gaps and the informal economy; subnational fiscal risks; public investment tracking; financial inclusion measurement; identification of emerging financial vulnerabilities; use of scanner data, web-scraped prices, electronic payments, and credit registries to improve inflation measurement and provide earlier signals of financial stress.
- 1:30 – 2:45: Session III: New Data, New Policy Options : Statistics for Macroeconomic, Trade, and Industrial Policy in the Era of Big Data and AI
- Topics: satellite imagery, mobility data, night-light data, web-scraped prices, customs records, firm-level data, shipping and logistics data to track GDP components, supply-chain disruptions, regional and sectoral developments, digital and platform-based activity, trade dependencies.
- 3:30 – 4:30: Session IV: Rethinking Policy Frameworks
- Focus: how access to more timely, granular, and diverse information reshapes the policy toolkit and enables more targeted interventions.
- Day 2 (November 19, 2026) — Responsibilities, governance, and production
- 9:00 – 9:10: Opening Remarks — Day 2
- 9:10 – 10:30: Session V: Can We Trust the Numbers? Data Quality, Transparency, and Confidence in the Age of Big Data and AI
- Issues: comparability with traditional measures; communicating provenance, methodology, uncertainty, limitations, and revisions; evolving data adequacy frameworks; model risk and real-time statistics in market-sensitive environments.
- 11:00 – 12:30: Session VI: Who Produces Statistics? The Expanding Data Ecosystem
- Focus: roles of fintech firms, digital platforms, data aggregators, research institutions, think tanks, international organizations, and public-private partnerships in producing economically relevant statistics; assessing reliability, bias, coverage, confidentiality protections, and fitness for policy use.
- 1:45 – 2:45: Session VII: From Pilots to Production — Integrating Big Data and AI into Statistical Production
- Topics: scanner/transaction data for price indices; machine learning for classification and editing; AI-assisted processing of administrative or financial data; geospatial, text, image, or satellite data at scale; governance, methodology, infrastructure, skills, and risk management lessons.
- 2:45 – 3:45: Session VIII: Measuring AI and Big Data
- Focus: measuring AI production and the AI-producing sector; AI adoption and diffusion across industries and firms; AI-related investment and valuation of data as an economic asset; survey instruments, administrative and commercial data use, classification challenges, cross-country comparability, and methodological frameworks for valuing data stocks and flows.
- 4:00 – 5:00: Session IX: One on One Discussion — Embracing transformation responsibly
- Closing focus: urgent need for new data on AI adoption, diffusion, and use across countries, sectors, firms, and workers; fostering collaboration, integrating new data sources and methods, maintaining quality and trust, protecting confidentiality, and ensuring innovation strengthens the credibility of official statistics.
- 5:00 – 5:15: Closing Remarks