Press Release No. 10/19

Press Release No. 10/19
January 28, 2010

Jordan subscribed today to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS), bringing the number of subscribing countries to 67.

“Jordan’s subscription to the SDDS represents a major step forward for official statistics in Jordan and for those who use these data,” said Ms. Adelheid Burgi-Schmelz, Director of the IMF’s Statistics Department. “Subscription to the standards underscores the strong commitment to transparency in Jordan, as well as a significant achievement in implementing internationally accepted best practices in statistics,” Ms. Burgi-Schmelz added.

The SDDS, established by the IMF in March 1996, is intended to guide members in the provision of their economic and financial data to the public. Subscription to the SDDS is expected to enhance the availability of timely and comprehensive statistics, thereby contributing to the pursuit of sound macroeconomic policies and the improved functioning of financial markets. The SDDS identifies four dimensions of data dissemination—the data: coverage, periodicity, and timeliness; access by the public; the integrity of the disseminated data; and the quality of the disseminated data. Although subscription is voluntary, a subscribing member commits to observe the standard and to provide information (metadata) to the IMF about its data dissemination practices. This information is made publicly available on the IMF's Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board (DSBB).

The DSBB now provides comprehensive documentation in English on the statistical practices of Jordan for SDDS data categories, hyperlinked to actual country data included in the mandatory National Summary Data Page maintained by the Central Bank of Jordan.

Useful links:

Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board: http://dsbb.imf.org/Applications/web/sddshome/

Jordan National Summary Data Page: http://www.cbj.gov.jo/uploads/NSDP_2010.HTML