Press Release No. 12/406

Press Release: The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste Begins Participation in the IMF's General Data Dissemination System

October 31, 2012

The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste began participating in the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF’s) General Data Dissemination System (GDDS) on October 31, 2012, marking a major step forward in the development of its statistical system. Comprehensive information on the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste’s statistical production and dissemination practices now appears on the IMF’s Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board (http://dsbb.imf.org/Applications/web/gdds/gddscountrylist/).

“The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste is committed to use the IMF’s General Data Dissemination System as a general framework to continue developing the national statistical system consistent with the best international practices,” said Ms. Emilia Pires, Minister of Finance of Timor-Leste. “The participation of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste in the GDDS will also lead to the production and dissemination of more reliable and timely statistics,” Ms. Pires stated.

“The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste’s participation in the GDDS is a major milestone in the country’s statistical development,” noted Mr. Alfredo Leone, Acting Director of the IMF Statistics Department. “I am confident that the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste will benefit from using the GDDS as a framework for further development of its statistical system,” Mr. Leone underscored.

The GDDS was established by the IMF in 1997. It provides a framework to help countries to develop their statistical systems to produce comprehensive and accurate statistics for policymaking and analysis. Timor-Leste is the 105^th GDDS participant (excluding the countries that have graduated from the GDDS to the Special Data Dissemination Standard).