## 14th IMF Statistical Forum: Measuring the Economy in the Era of Big Data and AI

_IMF Seminars_

## Source details

**Canonical URL:** [14th IMF Statistical Forum: Measuring the Economy in the Era of Big Data and AI](https://www.imf.org/en/news/seminars/conferences/2026/11/18/14th-imf-statistical-forum)

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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

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## References

- [13th IMF Statistical Forum: Measuring Cross-Border Economic and Financial Linkages in a Dynamic World](https://www.imf.org/en/news/seminars/conferences/2025/11/19/13th-statistical-forum)

_Source: https://www.imf.org/en/news/seminars/conferences/2026/11/18/14th-imf-statistical-forum_