No Compliance Summary
Taiwan is not a member of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and hence does not subscribe to the IMF's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) or participate in the IMF's less prescriptive General Data Dissemination System. However, per Oxford Analytica's (OA) 2006 report on Taiwan's monetary transparency, Taiwan's Central Bank broadly complies with the requirements of the SDDS for the release of financial and external sector statistics. Meanwhile, fiscal data, per OA's 2006 report on Taiwan's fiscal transparency, largely meets international standards in terms of coverage, periodicity, and timeliness.
General Overview
Taiwan is not a member of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and therefore does not subscribe to the IMF's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) or participate in the IMF's less prescriptive General Data Dissemination System (GDDS). Taiwan's central bank, per Oxford Analytica's (OA) 2006 report on Taiwan's monetary transparency, broadly complies with the SDDS for the dissemination of financial and external sector statistics. SDDS data has been posted on the Central Bank of China's (CBC) website since 1998. In addition, OA's 2006 country report on Taiwan's fiscal transparency asserts that the country's Ministry of Finance (MoF) has been disseminating data online consistent with SDDS requirements since 2002. The fiscal transparency assessment by OA notes that Taiwan complies largely with the SDDS requirements for coverage, timeliness, and periodicity. The report also notes that the methodology for data reporting, such as definitions and classifications, is disseminated by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting, and Statistics (DGBAS) in the Central Government Agency Budget Implementation Guidelines. Further, OA's monetary transparency report indicates that the Financial Statistics Division of the CBC's Economic Research Department publishes an advance release calendar. According to the DGBAS website, the compilation and dissemination of statistical data in Taiwan are governed by the following laws: the Statistics Act; the Enforcement Rules of the Statistics Act; and the Central Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan) Act.
The Principles
NCComprehensive economic and financial data, disseminated on a timely basis.
According to the OA 2006 country report on Taiwan's fiscal transparency, the country's MoF has been disseminating data online consistent with SDDS requirements since 2002. The same report indicates that Taiwan largely complies with the SDDS requirements for coverage, periodicity, and timeliness. A review of the DGBAS website reveals that Taiwan provides coverage for all categories of data except external debt. Taiwan meets or exceeds all periodicity requirements except for those for interest rates, which it provides monthly instead of daily. Taiwan struggles more with timeliness requirements, failing to meet the standards for consumer prices, producer prices, and central government operations, while meeting or exceeding requirements for the remaining data categories. However, the country does not subscribe to the IMF's SDDS, which is a requirement for this principle.
NCReady and equal access to official statistics.
According to OA's 2006 fiscal transparency report, the MoF provides an advance release calendar on its website that gives at least one month's notice of the exact release dates for central government operations, central government debt, and general government operations. The DGBSAS website, meanwhile, provides advance release calendars for all categories of data. According to the DGBSAS website, all categories of data are released simultaneously to interested parties except for general government operations and central government operations. For these categories, the DGBSAS states that data is available on request as soon as it is compiled, with the aggregate data subsequently posted on the MoF website. Despite Taiwan’s provision of this information, a rating of No Compliance is necessary since Taiwan does not subscribe to the IMF's SDDS.
NCOfficial statistics must have the confidence of their users. Transparency of its practices and procedures is a key factor.
According to the DGBSAS website, most of the requirements under this principle are met in a majority of the data categories. Most data categories have identification of internal government access to data before release and identification of ministerial commentary. However, more than half of all data categories fail to make any mention of the SDDS requirement on confidentiality of individually identifiable information. Further, many entry points do not meet the requirement on the provision of information about revision and advance notice of major changes in methodologies. In spite of the above information, Taiwan does not participate in the IMF's SDDS, and thus is not compliant with this principle.
NCA set of standards that deals with the coverage, periodicity and timeliness of data must also address the quality of statistics.
Per the DGBAS website, information as to the dissemination of component detail and statistical frameworks that support cross-checks is provided for only some of the data categories. Furthermore, a link to summary methodology is provided in only approximately two-thirds of the data categories. Regardless, Taiwan does not participate in the IMF's SDDS and therefore is not compliant with this principle.
