Free Email Notification

Receive emails when we post new items of interest to you.

Subscribe or Modify your profile

Quarterly Update on the Special Data Dissemination Standard
First Quarter 2005

May 9, 2005
 

New Subscribers

Russian Federation's Subscription to the SDDS

On January 31, 2005, the Russian Federation became the 60th subscriber to the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS). The Russian Federation is the sixth country of the Commonwealth of Independent States to subscribe to the SDDS.

The Arab Republic of Egypt's Subscription to the SDDS

On January 31, 2005, the Arab Republic of Egypt became the 59th subscriber to the International Monetary Fund's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS). Egypt is the second country in the Middle East to subscribe to the SDDS.

Observance Status

As of the end of the fourth quarter of 2004, none of the 58 SDDS subscribers at that time had been declared not in observance of the SDDS requirements for the coverage, periodicity, and timeliness of the data and for the dissemination of advance release calendars (ARCs) (Table 1). The IMF's Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board (DSBB) disseminates a complete list of subscribers. Observance of SDDS metadata requirements improved with the increase in posted Summary Methodologies.

Table 1. SDDS Indicators
Indicators As of March 31, 2004 As of December 31,2004 As of March 31, 2005
Number of subscribers 57 58 60
Number of countries officially in observance1 56 58 60
Number of summary methodologies posted2 974 1059 1136
1Observance of the requirements of the SDDS with respect to the coverage, periodicity, and timeliness of the data and the use of ARCs. Other elements of the SDDS dealing with the integrity and quality of the data are on a self-disclosure basis, with subscribers providing information on which users can make their own judgments. A subscriber experiencing difficulties in meeting SDDS requirements is not automatically in "nonobservance" of the SDDS. When deviations from SDDS requirements occur, the IMF staff try to resolve the issue with the subscriber, and then, if necessary, through the Executive Director. If these efforts fail, the matter is brought to the attention of the subscriber's Governor for the Fund. A subscriber is officially declared in "nonobservance" only when a note to that effect is posted on the DSBB.
2Out of a required total of 1,276 summary methodologies (21 data categories per subscriber, plus 16 subscribers that are currently disseminating the encouraged forward-looking indicators). All subscribers are disseminating summary methodologies for most data categories.

Monitoring Data Releases

The IMF monitors the data and access dimensions of the SDDS for each subscriber by comparing the first appearance of new information on the National Summary Data Page (NSDP) against the last release date allowed by the SDDS timeliness requirements.

In the first quarter of 2005, there was a decline of 1 percentage point in the on-time dissemination of monthly data categories compared with the same quarter in 2004 and a decline of 3 percentage points for quarterly data categories; the timeliness of the production index declined by 3 percentage points, reserves template declined by 4 percentage points, national accounts declined by 11.6 percentage points, employment declined by 2.5 percentage points, and external debt by 2.8 percentage points. (Table 2).

Compared to the previous quarter, there was a decline of about 0.4 percentage points in the on-time dissemination of monthly data categories and a decline of 2.7 percentage points in the quarterly data categories; analytical accounts of the banking sector increased by 3.8 percentage points, while national accounts decreased by 15 percentage points, employment decreased by 2.7 percentage points, and central government operations decreased by 3.8 percentage points. Regarding the national accounts, of the 58 countries subscribing to the SDDS at end-2004, 11 were late releasing data for the December quarter of 2004. This did not signal a major lengthening of quarterly publication lags, however, six of the 11 were late by one week or less. All of the delays except one were 15 days or less.

Annual data experienced a decline of 2.2 percentage points in the number of on-time releases compared with the previous quarter, and a decrease of 5.4 percentage points compared to the same quarter in 2004.

Table 2. Monitoring of Data ReleasesJanuary 2004-March 2005

Percentage of data disseminated on the National Summary Data Page (NSDP) in accordance with the SDDS timeliness requirements (quarterly averages)
Data Categories Q1/04(R) Q4/04 Q1/05
Monthly data 89.1 88.5 88.1
   Production index 94.2 90.1 91.2
   Consumer prices 94.5 94.6 93.6
   Producer prices 89.2 94.4 92.9
   Central government operations 75.3 79.0 75.2
   Analytical accounts of banking sector 90.4 85.2 89.0
   Analytical accounts of central bank 87.2 90.5 85.8
   Official reserves 87.3 85.3 87.6
   Reserves template 91.0 84.8 87.0
   Merchandise trade 92.5 92.3 90.7
Quarterly data 92.0 91.7 89.0
   National accounts 93.3 96.7 81.7
   Employment 93.4 93.6 90.9
   Unemployment 93.8 94.7 93.3
   Wages and earnings 93.8 94.2 91.3
   Central government debt 83.8 78.0 84.2
   Balance of payments 92.5 94.4 90.6
   External debt 93.7 90.3 90.9
Annual data 85.7 82.6 80.4
   General government operations 80.0 79.4 77.4
   International investment position 91.7 85.7 83.3
(R): revised

SDDS Outreach Seminars

As part of STA's ongoing program to expand SDDS subscription, two SDDS Outreach Seminars were carried out during the first quarter of 2005: the first one was in Pretoria, South Africa, and the second one in Bangkok, Thailand.

South Africa

The seminar, aimed at potential subscribers in Anglophone Africa, was held during February 28-March 4, 2005. The seminar was attended by participants from 11 countries, i.e., Angola, Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia, as well as representatives from the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) and the Secretariat of the Committee of Central Bank Governors of Southern African Development Community (CCBG). The seminar, financed by the Administered Account for Selected Fund Activities—Japan (JSA), was hosted by the SARB College.

Participants discussed their countries' dissemination practices relative to SDDS requirements in one-on-one sessions with the mission.

Thailand

The seminar, aimed at potential subscribers in Asia and the Pacific Region, was held during March 28-April 1, 2005. The seminar was attended by participants from 10 potential subscribing countries, i.e., Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Lao P.D.R., Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Vietnam, and representatives from Thailand, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the South East Asian Central Banks Research and Training Center (SEACEN), and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP). The seminar, financed by the Administered Account for Selected Fund Activities—Japan (JSA), was hosted by the UNESCAP.

Participants discussed their countries' dissemination practices relative to SDDS requirements in one-on-one sessions with the mission.

Quarterly External Debt Statistics Website

The Quarterly External Debt Statistics (QEDS) Database, a joint effort of the World Bank and the IMF, was launched in November 2004 at web address

http://www.worldbank.org/data/working/QEDS/sdds_main.html

QEDS brings together detailed external debt data that are published individually by countries that subscribe to the SDDS. Bringing together comparable external debt data for a large number of SDDS-subscribing countries in one central location facilitates macroeconomic analysis and cross-country data comparison. Fifty-four SDDS subscribing countries have agreed to participate in the QEDS database. Non-SDDS subscribing countries may be asked to participate in the centralized database at a later stage.