Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Congratulations to Seychelles!

Seychelles has started participating in the International Monetary Fund's General Data Dissemination System;
Mr. Danny Faure, the Governor of the IMF for Seychelles, and also Minister for Finance, recognizes that improvement in the quality and timeliness of economic, financial, and social statistics is essential for economic and social policy, and also for monitoring and assessing the government's development programs. The Minister adds that: "As Seychelles undergoes rapid economic and structural changes, it is important that data-producing agencies develop and improve on their methodological, compilation, and dissemination practices with a view to making them consistent with international codes and standards. The IMF's GDDS provides a structured reference framework for the development of statistical systems and participating in it is proof of the commitment of the data-producing agencies to monitor progress and also implement short- and medium-term plans for strengthening the system of official statistics. This will ultimately lead to the production and dissemination of more reliable and timely statistics, which is important for policymaking and resource allocation decisions of the country."


The GDDS will be a valuable tool for international statistical comparision;
“The GDDS framework is built around four dimensions -- data characteristics, quality, access, and integrity -- and is intended to provide guidance for the overall development of macroeconomic, financial, and socio-demographic data…

The data dimension includes coverage, periodicity (i.e. the frequency of compilation), and timeliness (i.e. the speed of dissemination). The data dimension addresses the development, production, and dissemination of two interrelated classes of data: (1) comprehensive frameworks for each of the four economic and financial sectors (real, fiscal, financial, and external); and (2) indicators for each of these sectors, plus the socio-demographic data.

With regard to comprehensive frameworks, the objective of the GDDS is to encourage the production and dissemination of complete sets of data with widest coverage, based on international methodologies. Particular aggregates and balances are provided for illustration, but the emphasis is placed on complete data sets rather than on specific indicators.”


Related;
GDDS Participating Countries
Timetable of Statistical Releases (Seychelles Central Bank)
Seychelles Data Profile (World Bank)
Seychelles: Recent Economic Developments (Yr 2000 is the latest available from the Fund. Hopefully the REDs will also be available online soon)
Seychelles- A president in paradise
Doing Business Seychelles

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