Austria Adheres to the International Monetary Fund's Special Data Dissemination Standard Plus | WPN World People News

Austria has completed the requirements for adherence to the International Monetary Fund’s Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) Plus—the highest tier of the Data Standards Initiatives. Austria’s SDDS Plus data are now posted on the Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board.

The SDDS Plus builds on the SDDS. Its purpose is for statistically advanced countries to publish comprehensive, timely, accessible, and reliable economic and financial data in an environment of continuing economic and financial integration.

“Statistics that are reliable, up to date, and internationally comparable, help us navigate our increasingly complex, globalized economic environment. Austria’s joining the SDDS Plus attests to the high quality and transparency of our national statistical system, which is an important factor in ensuring Austria’s attractiveness as a business and financial location,” said Mr. Ewald Nowotny, Governor of Austria’s Central Bank.

Mr. Louis Marc Ducharme, Director of the IMF’s Statistics Department, welcomed Austria’s adherence, noting that “the dissemination of the new data under the SDDS Plus will be invaluable in fostering a deeper understanding and assessment of the performance of Austria’s financial sector, the cross-border-financial linkages, and the vulnerabilities of the economy to shocks.”

The Data Standards Initiatives were established in the mid-1990s to enhance member countries’ data transparency and to promote the development of sound statistical systems. The need for data standards was highlighted by the financial crises of the mid-1990s and again in the late-2000s, when information deficiencies were seen to play a role.

Source: International Monetary Fund