The recommendations of the IMF’s Enhanced General Data Dissemination System (e-GDDS) have been officially implemented by Pakistan by publishing critical data through the National Summary Data Page (NSDP).
According to press release, the e-GDDS was established by the IMF in 2015 to support improved data transparency, encourage statistical development, and help create synergies between data dissemination and surveillance.
The NSDP is to serve as a one-stop publication vehicle for essential macroeconomic data on the national accounts, government operations and debt, monetary and financial sector, and balance of payments, etc.
Pakistan’s Bureau of Statistics, utilizing the Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange is to host the NSDP. The NSDP is available on the IMF’s Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board. It contains access to all the statistics published by the Ministry of Finance, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, and the State Bank of Pakistan.
Furthermore, it also includes publication of essential macroeconomic data through the NSDP that will provide national policy makers and domestic and international stakeholders, including investors and rating agencies easy access to information that is critical for monitoring economic conditions and policies.
The platform is to provide the users to have timely access to data and bring greater data transparency. Louis Marc Ducharme, Chief Statistician and Data Officer, and Director of the IMF’s Statistics Department, speaking on the development said, “I am confident that Pakistan will benefit from using the e-GDDS as a framework for further development of its statistical system.”
