Press Release No. 06/287

Press Release: Seychelles Begins Participation in the IMF's General Data Dissemination System (GDDS)

December 18, 2006

Seychelles began participating in the International Monetary Fund's General Data Dissemination System (GDDS) on December 18, 2006, marking a major step forward in the development of its statistical system. Comprehensive information on Seychelles's statistical production and dissemination practices now appears on the IMF's Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board (DSBB) http://dsbb.imf.org/.

Mr. Danny Faure, the Governor of the IMF for Seychelles, and also Minister for Finance, recognizes that improvement in the quality and timeliness of economic, financial, and social statistics is essential for economic and social policy, and also for monitoring and assessing the government's development programs. The Minister adds that: "As Seychelles undergoes rapid economic and structural changes, it is important that data-producing agencies develop and improve on their methodological, compilation, and dissemination practices with a view to making them consistent with international codes and standards. The IMF's GDDS provides a structured reference framework for the development of statistical systems and participating in it is proof of the commitment of the data-producing agencies to monitor progress and also implement short- and medium-term plans for strengthening the system of official statistics. This will ultimately lead to the production and dissemination of more reliable and timely statistics, which is important for policymaking and resource allocation decisions of the country."

Mr. Robert Edwards, Director of the IMF Statistics Department (STA), welcomed Seychelles's GDDS participation and observed: "Seychelles's participation in the GDDS is a milestone in the country's statistical development. Participation in the GDDS should allow Seychelles to take full advantage of the framework to enhance its statistical capacity, especially for macroeconomic and socio-demographic statistics."

The GDDS was established by the IMF in 1997. It is a framework to help countries produce comprehensive and accurate statistics for economic policy. Seychelles is the 88th GDDS participant. So far, six GDDS participants have used the GDDS framework to graduate to the Special Data Dissemination Standard, a more demanding dissemination standard also established by the IMF in 1996.