Press Release No. 16/163

Press Release: Honduras to Implement the International Monetary Fund’s Enhanced General Data Dissemination System

April 8, 2016

A mission of the International Monetary Fund’s Statistics Department visited Tegucigalpa during March 28–April 1, 2016, to assist the authorities with the implementation of the Enhanced General Data Dissemination System (e-GDDS), which was endorsed by the IMF’s Executive Board in May 2015. This makes Honduras the first IMF member in the Western Hemisphere to implement the recommendations of the e-GDDS.

The mission supported the development of the National Summary Data Page (NSDP), which will be posted on the Central Bank of Honduras website, utilizing the Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX) software. The page aims to serve as a one-stop publication vehicle for key macroeconomic data.

Publication of these data through the new NSDP will provide national policy makers, domestic and international stakeholders–including investors and rating agencies–with easy access to information that the IMF’s Executive Board has identified as critical for monitoring economic conditions and policies. Making this information easily accessible and based on an Advance Release Calendar, will allow all users to have simultaneous access to timely data and will bring greater data transparency.

The Honduran authorities are encouraged by the progress the country has made to achieve this important milestone in its quest for a more orderly publication of statistics. The NSDP will give users access to full information about Honduras’ e-GDDS data categories by June 1, 2016.

Background

The e-GDDS was established by the IMF’s Executive Board in May 2015 to support improved data transparency, encourage statistical development, and help create synergies between data dissemination and surveillance. The e-GDDS superseded the GDDS, which was established in 1997. A link to the country’s NSDP will be available on the IMF’s Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board (DSBB) by June 1, 2016: at http://dsbb.imf.org.