2. Providing Decision Makers with International Macroeconomic Statistics that They Need Committee for the Coordination of Statistical Activities (CCSA) ½ day Special Session on Best Practice for Ensuring Quality in International Statistics: Making International Statistics Fit for Sound Decision Making Tuesday, May 29, 2012, 2-6pm Athens, Greece Ethan Weisman Deputy Chief Data Dissemination and Review Division IMF Statistics Department The views expressed in this document are solely those of the author and should not be attributed to the IMF, its Executive Board or its management.

3. Audiences for Quality Macroeconomic Statistics  The General Public  Capital Markets  National Policy Makers and Analysts  Policy consultations with the IMF  Bilateral  Multilateral 2

4. Some Quality Challenges  Multiple data sets (if conflicting) and “fitness for use”  Availability (transparency)  International comparability  Inter-sectoral consistency  Inter-temporal consistency  Coverage  Periodicity and timeliness  Accuracy and reliability  Frameworks and methodologies (valuation, time of recording, basis of recording, classification/sectorization, stock/flow consistency, aggregation/consolidation/netting, etc.) NB: Many quality aspects involve trade-offs! 3

5. IMF Responses to the Challenges (1/2)  G-20 Data Gaps Initiative coordinated by the Inter-Agency Group on Economic and Financial Statistics (BIS, ECB, Eurostat, IMF (Chair), OECD, UN, WB) (see next slide)  Data Provision to the Fund for Surveillance Purposes (and related surveillance information)  Bilateral surveillance  Staff assessments of data quality (A=Adequate, B=Broadly adequate with shortcomings, C=Hampering surveillance)  Increasing focus on data quality, especially for financial sector data  Multilateral surveillance  Global, Regional and special reports (WEO, GFSR, Fiscal Monitor, REOs, as well as early warning and vulnerability exercises and financial sector interconnectedness and cluster analysis reports) 4

6. Build-up of Risk in the Financial Sector Cross-border Financial Linkages Vulnerability of Domestic Economies to Shocks Improving Communication of Official Statistics # 2 Financial Soundness Indicators (FSIs) #5 Credit Default Swaps #7 Securities # 10, #11, #12 Coordinated Portfolio Investment Survey, International Banking Statistics, International Investment Positions #15 Institutional Sector Accounts # 17 Government Finance Statistics # 18 Public Sector Debt #19 Real Estate Prices #20 Principal Global Indicators (PGIs) # 3 Tail Risk in the Financial System #4 Aggregate Leverage and Maturity Mismatches; #6 Structured Products #8 and # 9 Global Network Connections and Systemically Important Global Institutions # 13 and #14 Financial and Nonfinancial Corporations’ Cross Border Exposures #16 Distributional Information There Exist Conceptual/ Statistical Frameworks and Ongoing Collection Conceptual Statistical Framework Needs Further Development DATA GAPS 5

7. IMF Responses to the Challenges (2/2)  The IMF’s Data Quality Assessment Framework  Data module of the Reports on the Observance of Standards and Codes (Data ROSCs)  The Fund’s Data Standards Initiatives:  GDDS (a general development framework)  SDDS (for economies that seek or have access to capital markets)  SDDS Plus (recently approved by the IMF Executive Board, but not yet launched) 6

8. Thank you 7