Press Release No. 04/25

Press Release: Angola Formally Begins Participation in the IMF's General Data Dissemination System

February 12, 2004

Angola has begun participating in the International Monetary Fund's General Data Dissemination System (GDDS), marking an important step forward in the development of the country's statistical system. Comprehensive information on its statistical production and dissemination practices were published on the IMF's Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board (DSBB) (http://dsbb.imf.org/Applications/web/gdds/gddshome/) starting on January 29, 2004.

Dr. Joaquim Flavio de Soussa Couto, the Director General of the National Statistics Institute of Angola, made the following statement in support of the GDDS: "Angola's decision to adhere to the General Data Dissemination System (GDDS) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is further evidence of the commitment of the Government and, by the same token, of the agencies that produce official statistics, to enhance their activity, using as reference the international good practices for producing and disseminating official statistics. The preparation of metadata and the commitment to update them regularly, using the methodology recommended for the GDDS, is undoubtedly a significant step in the process of gradually and progressively improving the production and dissemination of Angola's official economic, financial, and socio-demographic statistics."

The GDDS, which was established by the IMF in 1997, provides a framework to assist Fund member countries to develop their statistical systems with the objective of producing comprehensive and accurate statistics for policy-making and analysis. It addresses the quality and the dissemination of data. In addition, the DSBB for Angola shows the country's plans for improvements in its statistics infrastructure and related technical assistance needs. This information provides the international community with a useful framework to develop and coordinate their technical cooperation projects in Angola. Since its inception, 69 countries have participated in GDDS and have had their metadata published in the IMF's DSBB. Of this total, three countries—Armenia, Bulgaria, and Kazakhstan—have graduated to the Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS).

Mrs. Carol S. Carson, Director of the Statistics Department, noted: "Angola's participation in the General Data Dissemination System is an important step towards rebuilding the country's statistical system. The technical assistance being provided to Angola under the GDDS Project for Lusophone Countries aims at assisting the authorities in this major task by supplying the tools and expertise to identify the macroeconomic statistical areas that require priority attention, develop the relevant action programs, and assist in their implementation. Since the start of this initiative in late-2002, 13 separate technical assistance missions have been undertaken to the four participants in the Lusophone African Project."