{
  "title": "14th IMF Statistical Forum: Measuring the Economy in the Era of Big Data and AI",
  "publication": "IMF Seminars",
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.imf.org/en/news/seminars/conferences/2026/11/18/14th-imf-statistical-forum",
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  "overlayPath": "/en/news/seminars/conferences/2026/11/18/14th-imf-statistical-forum/index.md",
  "summary": "The 14th IMF Statistical Forum seeks 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 the information available for policy analysis, and transforming statistical production.",
  "sections": [
    {
      "heading": "Forum overview",
      "content": "- The International Monetary Fund will hold the 14th IMF Statistical Forum from November 18 to 19, 2026, in Washington, D.C., USA.\n- 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.\n- 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.\n- Central challenge highlighted: integrating new data sources and AI-enabled methods while preserving data quality, transparency, governance, and trust that underpin official statistics."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Call for papers, deadlines, and editorial timeline",
      "content": "- Abstract submission requirements:\n  - Abstract length: 250 words maximum.\n  - Abstract should describe the main ideas of the proposed paper.\n- Submission and manuscript timeline:\n  - Proposal deadline: August 7, 2026.\n  - Authors of selected proposals will be contacted by August 21, 2026.\n  - Deadline for submitting a first draft of the paper: September 18, 2026.\n  - Final version of the paper and presentation due no later than October 16, 2026.\n- Travel support: travel and hotel expenses of the presenting author will be covered by the Forum organizers."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Topics and thematic sessions of interest",
      "content": "- The Program Committee welcomes empirical, methodological, and applied work on topics including, but not limited to:\n  - 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.\n  - 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.\n  - 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.\n  - Integration of big data and AI into regular statistical production: infrastructure, methodologies, organizational change, skills, governance, and risk management.\n  - Data quality, transparency, explainability, and trust in AI-enabled economic measurement.\n  - Public-private partnerships and new models for data sharing and statistical collaboration.\n  - Novel approaches to measuring the digital economy, climate-related risks, financial interconnectedness, and distributional outcomes.\n  - Approaches to measuring the AI economy, AI productivity gains, AI adoption and data as an asset.\n- Session topics (tentative):\n  - Session II: New Data, New Policy Options: Statistics for Fiscal, Financial, and Monetary Policy\n  - Session III: New Data, New Policy Options: Big Data and AI for Macroeconomic, Trade, and Industrial Policy\n  - Session VI: Who Produces Statistics? The Expanding Data Ecosystem\n  - Session VII: From Pilots to Production — Integrating Big Data and AI into Statistical Production\n  - Session VII: Measuring AI and Big Data\n- Evaluation criteria used by the Program Committee:\n  - Relevance to the theme and areas of interest of the Forum\n  - Originality\n  - Analytical rigor\n  - Feasibility\n  - Operational relevance\n  - Policy significance"
    },
    {
      "heading": "Practical submission guidelines",
      "content": "- Required proposal format fields:\n  - Title of Paper\n  - Name of speaker(s)\n  - Affiliation of speaker(s)\n  - Abstract text (max 250 words)\n  - Contact details: Name; Telephone number; Email address\n- Document formatting:\n  - Font size: 12-point throughout\n  - Justification: Left margin only, no indentations\n  - Line spacing: Text should be single spaced\n  - Abstract text: maximum of 250 words\n  - File format: MS-Word as a .doc or .docx document\n  - File naming: use the contact author’s name as the name of the attached file\n- Submission channel: Send your paper proposal by email to IMFStatisticalForum@imf.org"
    },
    {
      "heading": "Program highlights and schedule (selected items and session descriptions)",
      "content": "- Day 1 (November 18, 2026) — Opening themes\n  - 8:30 – 9:00: Registration and Light Breakfast\n  - 9:00 – 9:10: Welcoming Remarks — Senior IMF Management\n  - 9:10 – 9:20: Introduction to the Forum — Director, IMF Statistics Department\n  - 9:20 – 10:15: Session I: Opening Keynote — The Measurement Inflection Point: Economic Statistics in the Era of Big Data and AI\n    - 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.\n  - 10:45 – 12:15: Session II: New Data, New Policy Options: Statistics for Fiscal, Financial, and Monetary Policy\n    - 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.\n  - 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\n    - 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.\n  - 3:30 – 4:30: Session IV: Rethinking Policy Frameworks\n    - Focus: how access to more timely, granular, and diverse information reshapes the policy toolkit and enables more targeted interventions.\n- Day 2 (November 19, 2026) — Responsibilities, governance, and production\n  - 9:00 – 9:10: Opening Remarks — Day 2\n  - 9:10 – 10:30: Session V: Can We Trust the Numbers? Data Quality, Transparency, and Confidence in the Age of Big Data and AI\n    - 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.\n  - 11:00 – 12:30: Session VI: Who Produces Statistics? The Expanding Data Ecosystem\n    - 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.\n  - 1:45 – 2:45: Session VII: From Pilots to Production — Integrating Big Data and AI into Statistical Production\n    - 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.\n  - 2:45 – 3:45: Session VIII: Measuring AI and Big Data\n    - 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.\n  - 4:00 – 5:00: Session IX: One on One Discussion — Embracing transformation responsibly\n    - 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.\n  - 5:00 – 5:15: Closing Remarks"
    }
  ],
  "bullets": [
    "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.",
    "Abstract submission requirements:",
    "Submission and manuscript timeline:",
    "Travel support: travel and hotel expenses of the presenting author will be covered by the Forum organizers.",
    "The Program Committee welcomes empirical, methodological, and applied work on topics including, but not limited to:",
    "Session topics (tentative):",
    "Evaluation criteria used by the Program Committee:",
    "Required proposal format fields:",
    "Document formatting:",
    "Submission channel: Send your paper proposal by email to IMFStatisticalForum@imf.org",
    "Day 1 (November 18, 2026) — Opening themes",
    "Day 2 (November 19, 2026) — Responsibilities, governance, and production"
  ],
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  "generatedAtUtc": "2026-10-02T03:27:39.470Z"
}