Press Release No 17 –
Fiji to Implement IMF Enhanced General Data Dissemination System
Press Release No. : 17/2018
Date : 27 August 2018
The Reserve Bank of Fiji (RBF), Fiji Bureau of Statistics, and Ministry of Economy hosted a mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Statistics Department from 17-23 August 2018, to assist with the implementation of the Enhanced General Data Dissemination System (e-GDDS), which was endorsed by the IMF Executive Board in May 2015. The mission supported the development of the National Summary Data Page (NSDP) – a national “data hub” that features data dissemination in Statistical Data and Metadata eXchange (SDMX) machine readable format as well as human readable format. The NSDP aims to serve as an all in one publication vehicle for key macroeconomic and financial data. Fiji’s NSDP is expected to go live by 13 September 2018, making Fiji one of the first wave of countries in the Pacific to implement the e-GDDS.
To mark this milestone in Fiji’s efforts to enhance statistics development, RBF Governor, Mr Ariff Ali highlighted that “the new NSDP will provide national policy makers and a broad range of national and international stakeholders, including investors and rating agencies, with easy access to information that the IMF Executive Board has identified as critical for monitoring economic conditions and policies in a country. Making this information available in both human and machine‐readable formats simultaneously to all data users will bring greater data transparency”. The Permanent Secretary for Economy, Ms Makereta Konrote stated that “implementing the e- GDDS will enhance the availability of comprehensive and timely statistics that will support policy making and improve data transparency”. Government Statistician, Mr Epeli Waqavonovono in welcoming this e-GDDS initiative remarked that “macroeconomic data will be easily accessible and widely disseminated when the NSDP is operational.
The e‐GDDS was endorsed by the IMF Executive Board in May 2015 to support improved data transparency, encourage statistical development, and help create synergies between data dissemination and surveillance. The e‐GDDS is an advance beyond the GDDS, which was established in 1997. A link to Fiji’s NSDP will be available on the IMF’s Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board (DSBB) by 13 September 2018 at http://dsbb.imf.org/.