{ "title": "Data that Delivers", "sourceUrl": "https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2025/12/editor-letter-data-that-delivers", "canonical": "https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2025/12/editor-letter-data-that-delivers", "overlayPath": "/en/publications/fandd/issues/2025/12/editor-letter-data-that-delivers/index.md", "summary": "To serve the public good, data needs to help us see our world more clearly, make better decisions, and respond intelligently to complexity.", "sections": [ { "heading": "Overview and framing", "content": "- Publication: F&D Magazine — Data that Delivers\n- Author: GITA BHATT\n- Date: December 2025\n- Reading indicator: Less than a minute(0 words) Read\n- Core thesis: To serve the public good, data needs to help us see our world more clearly, make better decisions, and respond intelligently to complexity.\n- Closing observation: \"Data, after all, is a means not an end.\"" }, { "heading": "The data deluge and core questions", "content": "- New data sources (satellites, smartwatches, social media, transaction swipes) and techniques are expanding measurement to levels previously unimaginable.\n- Key questions posed:\n - How can we distinguish meaningful signals of economic activity from noise in the age of artificial intelligence?\n - How should new data sources be used to inform policy decisions?\n - To what extent can new sources of data complement or replace official statistics?\n - Are we measuring the metrics that matter in today’s increasingly digital economy, or merely tracking legacy indicators?" }, { "heading": "Alternative/private data versus official statistics", "content": "- Kenneth Cukier: harnessing alternative data requires a new mindset; economists risk clinging to outdated metrics despite faster, granular, and sharper alternative insights that better reflect \"ground truth\".\n- Limitations of alternative data:\n - Often a by-product of private business activity and carries private-sector biases.\n - May lack long continuity and robust methods that underpin official indicators.\n- Conclusion: Official statistics remain essential." }, { "heading": "Central banks, statistical agencies, and transparency", "content": "- Claudia Sahm: central banks are using new data to fill gaps (including falling response rates to national surveys) but do so in tandem with trusted official sources.\n - Recommendation: strong ties between statistical agencies, private providers, government officials, and academics to improve data quality.\n - Caution: reliance on data sources not available to the public erodes transparency and central bank accountability.\n- Bert Kroese (IMF): reliance on private data must not reduce resources for official number crunching; strong, independent national statistical agencies are vital to data integrity and policy credibility." }, { "heading": "Measurement modernization and intangible assets", "content": "- Rebecca Riley: core economic metrics like GDP and productivity are increasingly misaligned with a rewired, data-driven economy.\n - Recommendation: modernize measurement systems to better capture intangible assets such as digital services and the evolving structure of global production." }, { "heading": "Data concentration, sharing, and geopolitics", "content": "- Viktor Mayer-Schönberger: concentration of data collection among a handful of Big Tech companies threatens competition and innovation.\n - Policy case: mandate broader data sharing.\n- Thijs Van de Graaf: AI's data hunger creates material pressures (energy, chips, minerals, water) that are reshaping global power dynamics." }, { "heading": "Valuing, applying, and scaling data innovations", "content": "- Laura Veldkamp: explores how to price, use, and share information and proposes approaches to make intangible data countable.\n- Jeff Kearns: highlights nowcasting and other innovative approaches helping developing economies close information gaps.\n- Saurabh Garg (head of India’s statistical agency): discusses tackling challenges of scale as public demand for real-time data grows." }, { "heading": "Synthesis and policy implications", "content": "- Better measurement is not solely about more data but about using data wisely, especially as AI amplifies both possibilities and noise.\n- Policy priorities distilled from the issue:\n - Preserve and strengthen official statistical capacity and independence.\n - Foster collaboration among statistical agencies, private providers, government, and academia.\n - Ensure transparency by prioritizing publicly available data sources when possible.\n - Modernize measurement frameworks to account for digital services and intangible assets.\n - Implement policies to reduce data concentration and promote broader data sharing.\n - Recognize and manage the material and geopolitical implications of AI-driven data demand.\n\n---\n\n Content in this bundle\n\n- Data that Delivers\n - Data that Delivers (Markdown version){rel=\"alternate\" type=\"text/markdown\"}\n - Data that Delivers (PDF){rel=\"external\" type=\"application/pdf\"}\n- fd-dec25-lowres - 2024. Each dot represents a country’s\n - fd-dec25-lowres - 2024. Each dot represents a country’s (Markdown version){rel=\"alternate\" type=\"text/markdown\"}\n - fd-dec25-lowres - 2024. Each dot represents a country’s (PDF){rel=\"external\" type=\"application/pdf\"}\n\n---\n\nSource: https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2025/12/editor-letter-data-that-delivers" } ], "bullets": [ "[Markdown version](/en/publications/fandd/issues/2025/12/editor-letter-data-that-delivers/index.md)", "[Structured JSON version](/en/publications/fandd/issues/2025/12/editor-letter-data-that-delivers/index.json)", "[Bundle manifest](/en/publications/fandd/issues/2025/12/editor-letter-data-that-delivers/bundle-manifest.json)", "Authors: GITA BHATT", "Published: November 18, 2025", "Publication: F&D Magazine — Data that Delivers", "Author: GITA BHATT", "Date: December 2025", "Reading indicator: Less than a minute(0 words) Read", "Core thesis: To serve the public good, data needs to help us see our world more clearly, make better decisions, and respond intelligently to complexity.", "Closing observation: \"Data, after all, is a means not an end.\"", "New data sources (satellites, smartwatches, social media, transaction swipes) and techniques are expanding measurement to levels previously unimaginable.", "Key questions posed:", "Kenneth Cukier: harnessing alternative data requires a new mindset; economists risk clinging to outdated metrics despite faster, granular, and sharper alternative insights that better reflect \"ground truth\".", "Limitations of alternative data:", "Conclusion: Official statistics remain essential.", "Claudia Sahm: central banks are using new data to fill gaps (including falling response rates to national surveys) but do so in tandem with trusted official sources.", "Bert Kroese (IMF): reliance on private data must not reduce resources for official number crunching; strong, independent national statistical agencies are vital to data integrity and policy credibility.", "Rebecca Riley: core economic metrics like GDP and productivity are increasingly misaligned with a rewired, data-driven economy.", "Viktor Mayer-Schönberger: concentration of data collection among a handful of Big Tech companies threatens competition and innovation.", "Thijs Van de Graaf: AI's data hunger creates material pressures (energy, chips, minerals, water) that are reshaping global power dynamics.", "Laura Veldkamp: explores how to price, use, and share information and proposes approaches to make intangible data countable.", "Jeff Kearns: highlights nowcasting and other innovative approaches helping developing economies close information gaps.", "Saurabh Garg (head of India’s statistical agency): discusses tackling challenges of scale as public demand for real-time data grows.", "Better measurement is not solely about more data but about using data wisely, especially as AI amplifies both possibilities and noise.", "Policy priorities distilled from the issue:", "**Data that Delivers**", "**fd-dec25-lowres - 2024. 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