Press Release No. 24/331

Bosnia and Herzegovina subscribes to the IMF’s Special Data Dissemination Standard

September 18, 2024

Washington, DC: Bosnia and Herzegovina has subscribed to the IMF’s Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS), becoming the 49^th member country to meet the SDDS requirements. Subscription to the SDDS is expected to improve the country’s capacity on data compilation and dissemination, facilitate the macro-economic policy making process, help build up market confidence on the country’s institutional capacity, and contribute to the economic and financial stability.

Bosnia and Herzegovina advancing from the IMF’s Enhanced General Data Dissemination System (e-GDDS) to the SDDS, the next tier data standards, within six years is a great testament to the authorities’ commitment to data transparency.

Bert Kroese, Chief Statistician and Data Officer, and Director of the IMF’s Statistics Department, welcomed the key achievement in the country’s statistical development. “I congratulate the authorities on graduating from the e-GDDS and advancing to the SDDS. It reflects Bosnia and Herzegovina’s strong commitment to transparency and is a significant step forward in complying to internationally accepted best practices in data dissemination.”

“Subscription to the SDDS is also beneficial the country. Empirical studies find that the implementation of the data dissemination standards contribute to improving member countries’ sovereign financing conditions,” Mr. Kroese added. “The milestone is also a testament to the Fund’s commitment to helping the member countries with capacity development.”

The SDDS, established by the IMF in March 1996, is intended to guide members in the dissemination of economic and financial data to the public. Subscription to the SDDS enhances the availability of timely statistics according to an advance release calendar (ARC), thereby contributing to sound macroeconomic policies and the proper functioning of financial markets. Although voluntary, a subscribing member commits to observe the standard and to publish information (metadata) about its data dissemination practices.

In concluding the Tenth Review of the IMF Data Standards Initiatives in February 2022, the IMF Executive Board underscored the important role that the Data Standards Initiatives have played since the mid-1990s in promoting data transparency as a global public good by encouraging countries to voluntarily publish key macroeconomic and financial data. The Tenth Review also stressed the importance of supporting the e-GDDS countries’ advancement toward the SDDS.

The National Summary Data Page of Bosnia and Herzegovina includes the SDDS data categories. Comprehensive documentation on the related statistical practices is published at the IMF’s Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board (DSBB) and information for Bosnia and Herzegovina is available at https://dsbb.imf.org/sdds/country/BIH/category.

In addition to the SDDS and the e-GDDS, the Data Standards Initiatives include the SDDS Plus. Detailed information on the Data Standards Initiatives can be found at https://dsbb.imf.org.