Dissemination
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Reviews of the Fund's Data Standards' Initiatives (Reviews)

Special Data Dissemination Standard Site (SDDS)
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General Data Dissemination System Site (GDDS)

Data Quality Reference Site (DQRS)

Specifications of
External Sector Statistics

The specifications of the economic and financial data for the IMF's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) are in terms of:

Coverage:	the categories and components that are most important in shedding light on macroeconomic performance and policy. The standard identifies for each of the four sectors of the economy (i) a comprehensive statistical framework; (ii) data that permit frequent tracking of the principal measures in the framework; and (iii) other data relevant to the sector.
Periodicity:	the frequency of compilation--daily, weekly, monthly, etc.
Timeliness:	the maximum lapse of time between a reference date (or close of a reference period) and dissemination--for example, one month.

Please click here for information about the possible use of flexibility options for the data categories in this sector.

Balance of Payments

Coverage:	This is the comprehensive statistical framework for the external sector. The SDDS prescribes, for the current account: the dissemination of imports and exports of goods and services; net income receipts; and net current transfers. For the capital (or capital and financial) account, the prescribed components include international reserves and other financial transactions as available. A breakdown of financial transactions according to direct investment and portfolio investment is encouraged. Classification according to the fifth edition of the IMF's Balance of Payments Manual is strongly encouraged, as is the separate dissemination of data on financial derivatives.
Periodicity:	Quarterly
Timeliness:	One quarter

International reserves and foreign currency liquidity

Coverage:

This data category serves as a tracking category for the balance of payments, providing a more frequent and timely indicator of external sector developments than the comprehensive framework of the balance of payments. This data category is comprised of two components: (1) the official reserve assets; and (2) the Data Template on International Reserves and Foreign Currency Liquidity (reserves template).

For official reserve assets, the standard prescribes the dissemination of data on the total amount of official reserve assets and the value of each prescribed component (foreign currency reserves, IMF reserve position, SDRs, gold, and other reserve assets); the dissemination of reserve related liabilities, as relevant, is an encouraged component of total official reserves.

For the reserves template, the standard prescribes the dissemination of: (1) official reserve assets and other foreign currency assets; (2) predetermined short-term drains on foreign currency assets; (3) contingent short-term drains on foreign currency assets; and (4) other related items in national currency and/or U.S. dollars. The dissemination of a Pro Memoria component in Section III, item 4 of the reserves template -- comprising in-the-money options at several exchange rate scenarios and further broken down into short and long positions -- is encouraged as a "stress-test". The methodology is set out in the IMF's International Reserves and Foreign Currency Liquidity: Guidelines for a Data Template for the compilation of the data template on international reserves and foreign currency liquidity.

Periodicity:

Monthly (weekly encouraged) for both the official reserve assets and the reserves template.

Timeliness:

One week for total official reserve assets and their prescribed components (foreign currency reserves, IMF reserve position, SDRs, gold, and other reserve assets); one month (one week encouraged) for the reserves template.

Merchandise trade

Coverage:	This data category is a tracking category for the balance of payments, providing a more frequent and timely indication of developments in the current account of the balance of payments. The standard prescribes dissemination of total imports and total exports with the prescribed timeliness and encourages dissemination of detail by major commodity within a slightly longer lapse of time for compilation.
Periodicity:	Monthly
Timeliness:	Eight weeks (4-6 weeks encouraged)

International investment position

Coverage:	The standard calls for the IIP to be compiled in accordance with the fifth edition of the IMF's Balance of Payments Manual and prescribes that assets and liabilities should be classified into direct investment; portfolio investment, showing a breakdown into equity and debt; other investment; and reserves (assets only). A breakdown of liabilities in the form of securities and loans, within portfolio and other investment, by currency of issue and by original maturity (e.g., short-, medium-, and long-term) is encouraged in situations where analysis of a country's debt is highly desirable. In addition, the separate dissemination of financial derivatives as a new functional category is encouraged.
Periodicity:	Annual (quarterly encouraged).
Timeliness:	Three quarters (one quarter encouraged).

Exchange rates

Coverage:	The standard calls for the dissemination of spot market exchange rates for major currencies with respect to the national currency. Dissemination of three- and six-month forward market rates is prescribed as relevant.
Periodicity:	Daily
Timeliness:	Given that data are widely available from private sources, timeliness is not specified to allow the disseminating agency flexibility to incorporate the data into another (preferably high-frequency) product.

External debt

Coverage:

The SDDS calls for the dissemination of external debt (EXD) of the general government, the monetary authorities, the banking sector, and all other sectors, to be compiled in accordance with the fifth edition of the IMF's Balance of Payments Manual. Data should also be broken down by maturity-short-term and long-term on an original maturity basis and by instrument.

In addition, the SDDS encourages the dissemination of supplementary information on future debt service payments, in which the principal and interest components are separately identified, twice yearly for the first four quarters and the following two semesters ahead, with a lag of one quarter. The data should also be broken down into sectors--general government, monetary authorities, the banking sector, and all other sectors.

Finally, the dissemination of a domestic/foreign currency breakdown of external debt with quarterly periodicity and timeliness is encouraged.