April 30, 2019

Vanuatu has implemented the recommendations of the IMF’s Enhanced General Data Dissemination System (e-GDDS) by publishing critical data through the National Summary Data Page (NSDP). The page aims to serve as a one-stop publication vehicle for essential macroeconomic data on the national accounts, government operations and debt, monetary and financial sector, and the balance of payments, among others. These data will be disseminated in both human and machine-readable formats. The e-GDDS was established by the IMF’s Executive Board in May 2015 to support improved data transparency, encourage statistical development, and help create synergies between data dissemination and surveillance.

The NSDP is posted on the Reserve Bank of Vanuatu’s website, utilizing the Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange, and is accessible on the IMF’s Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board at http://dsbb.imf.org. It contains links to statistics published by official data producers, namely the National Statistics Office, the Reserve Bank of Vanuatu, and the Ministry of Finance.

Publication of essential macroeconomic data through the NSDP will provide national policy makers and domestic and international stakeholders, including investors and rating agencies, with easy access to information that the IMF’s Executive Board has identified as critical for monitoring economic conditions and policies. Making this information simultaneously available to all users will bring greater data transparency.

To mark this major milestone in Vanuatu’s statistical development, Mr. Gaetan Pikioune, Minister of Finance noted—on behalf of all three agencies involved in producing Vanuatu’s macroeconomic data— “The implementation of the e-GDDS would facilitate Vanuatu’s effort in enhancing the quality of data that are made available for public use.”

Louis Marc Ducharme, Chief Statistician and Data Officer, and Director of the IMF’s Statistics Department, welcomed this major milestone in the country’s statistical development. “I congratulate the authorities for the launch of the NSDP, an important step forward in data dissemination. I am confident that Vanuatu will benefit from using the e-GDDS as a framework for further development of its statistical system.”