Press Release No. 14/590

Press Release: IMF Releases the Revamped Inter-Agency Task Force on Finance Statistics Website

December 18, 2014

On December 17, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has released the revamped Inter-Agency Task Force on Finance Statistics (TFFS)¹ website (www.tffs.org). The website disseminates information on activities of TFFS member agencies in the areas of external debt and public sector debt statistics.

The revamping of the TFFS website is in response to a request of the member agencies during its 2013 meeting and follows the publication of the 2013 External Debt Statistics Guide (2013 EDS Guide). The objective of this update is to facilitate the identification of international guidelines, key databases, and activities related to debt statistics. The website’s layout has been enhanced, featuring graphs, relevant documents, and more hyperlinks to updated information as well as providing users with the possibility to have easy access to databases. The TFFS website was originally launched in December 2008.

In addition to the agenda, minutes of the meetings, and occasional reports produced by the attending agencies, the TFFS website includes annual reports to the IMF Committee on Balance of Payments Statistics and reports to the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) every 3 to 4 years. Work in training and capacity building of member agencies within the task force is included as well.

The TFFS activities include work in setting methodological standards (2013 EDS Guide and Public Sector Debt Statistics Guide), promoting data availability (the Quarterly External Debt Statistics Database, the Public Sector Debt Database, and the Joint External Debt Hub), enhancing data quality, and other specific debt statistics work of each member agency. The TFFS meets once every year (usually around March).

¹ The TFFS is chaired by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and its member agencies are the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the Commonwealth Secretariat (ComSec), the European Central Bank (ECB), the European Commission (Eurostat), the IMF, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Paris Club Secretariat, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and the World Bank.