Special Data Dissemination Standard

Sound and comprehensive data is a macroeconomic fundamental, essential for analyzing and comparing countries’ economic, political, financial and socioeconomic progress.  Most countries collect and publish data, but not all produce data in accordance with international guidelines.  The International Monetary Fund (IMF), as the main standard setting body, advocates strong and uniform data and encourages member countries to improve their data and dissemination practices. The IMF’s two data dissemination codes are the Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) and the General Data Dissemination System (GDDS)   established in 1996 and 1997, respectively.   The purpose of the SDDS is to provide better access to the international capital markets for countries with high data quality standards. The GDDS, on the contrary, helps countries with underdeveloped data dissemination practices improve their statistical systems. Subscription to the SDDS and participation in the GDDS are voluntary.  Once a country subscribes to the SDDS, however, observance of the standard becomes mandatory. SDDS is more prescriptive and demanding than the GDDS.  Besides the GDDS is not a standard but rather a set of recommendations that the IMF provides for the production and dissemination of statistics.  

The IMF's Special Data Dissemination Standard

The SDDS has 22 categories that provide coverage for the real, fiscal, financial, external and socio-demographic sectors of the economy.  Of the 22 categories, one is an optional (encouraged) category, namely “Forward Looking Indicators.”   Countries that subscribe to the SDDS agree to follow good practices in four areas for the above 22 categories: (1) the coverage, periodicity, and timeliness of data; (2) public access to those data; (3) data integrity; and (4) data quality.  For each of these four dimensions, the SDDS prescribes two to four requirements – good practices that can be observed, or monitored by the users of statistics.

The SDDS prescribes the periodicity (or frequency) and timeliness with which data for categories are to be disseminated. In recognition of the differences in economic structures and institutional arrangements across countries, the SDDS provides flexibility in terms of periodicity, timeliness, and coverage for data dissemination practices across countries.  For example, a country can avail of the flexibility option on coverage for certain data categories based on the SDDS’ flexibility options.  In such cases the data will be marked ‘as relevant.’ Similarly, with regards to periodicity and timeliness, a subscribing member may exercise flexibility options for certain categories while being in full observance of the SDDS.


Applicability of the Special Data Dissemination Standard

As stated earlier, the SDDS is important in its application as it provides cross sectional dissemination of member countries’ data in a manner that provides consistency, reliability and verifiability across countries’ macro economic, sociopolitical and economic indicators.  In short, the SDDS is essential for the transparency of monetary and fiscal policy, and the financial sector.  The Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board (DSBB) maintained by the IMF is the main source of assessment for this standard.  Member countries post their metadata on the IMF’s DSBB, and the DSBB in turn facilitates monitoring of observance of the standard by IMF staff, the financial markets and other data users.  The DSBB list all member countries and their compliance with the SDDS’ four dimensions – (1) coverage, periodicity, and timeliness of data; (2) public access to those data; (3) data integrity; and (4) data quality – and their individual requirements.  The IMF also publishes its Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes – Data Module, which assess a country’s macroeconomic statistics against the requirements of the SDDS, complemented by an assessment of data quality based on the IMF’s Data Quality Assessment Framework.  The IMF’s Article IV Consultation report (generally published annually) also has a section on ‘statistical issues’ addressing a country’s adherence to SDDS.  As of 2007, the IMF began publishing the “Annual Observance Report of the Special Data Dissemination Standard” for member countries, which also provides information on these countries overall compliance with the SDDS.