Press Release No. 06/142

Press Release: Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Begins Participation in the IMF's General Data Dissemination System

June 26, 2006

The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan began participating in the International Monetary Fund's General Data Dissemination System (GDDS) on June 22, 2006, marking a major step forward in the development of Afghanistan's statistical system. Comprehensive information on Afghanistan's statistical production and dissemination practices now appears on the IMF's Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board (DSBB) (http://dsbb.imf.org/Applications/web/gdds/gddshome/).

Mr. Norullah Delawari, the Governor of Da Afghanistan Bank, said: "Afghanistan is committed to the comprehensive compilation and dissemination of macroeconomic and socio-demographic statistics, realizing that it is essential for formulating sound macroeconomic policies that promote economic and social development. In late 2004, Afghanistan authorities, with the assistance of international agencies, developed and launched a Statistics Master Plan aimed at bringing the production of official statistics in Afghanistan in line with international standards. Achieving full participation in the GDDS marks the fruition of one element of that Plan. Given our strong reliance on accurate data and the extensive reforms our government has undertaken in recent years, we consider the active participation in the GDDS as an important achievement and as an ongoing process for improving our statistical system."

Mr. Robert W. Edwards, Director of the IMF Statistics Department (STA), welcomed Afghanistan's GDDS participation and observed: "Afghanistan's participation in the GDDS is a major milestone in the country's statistical development. Participation in the GDDS should allow Afghanistan to take full advantage of the framework to enhance its statistical capacity."

Afghanistan is the 91st GDDS participant. Six GDDS participants have graduated to become subscribers to the IMF Special Data Dissemination Standard, and there are 85 current participants in the GDDS. GDDS participants disseminate their metadata, plans for improvement for their statistics, and related information on their technical assistance needs on the DSBB. The GDDS, established by the IMF in 1997, provides a framework to assist countries to develop their statistical systems with the objective of producing comprehensive and accurate statistics for policymaking and analysis.