By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday said nine (9) countries would formally commit to higher standards of economic and financial statistical data by adhering to the institution’s Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) Plus – the highest tier of the Fund’s Data Standards Initiatives.

“The Fund welcomes the support that this first cluster of countries has shown toward the institution’s Data Standards Initiatives, and looks forward to other countries joining them soon,” Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF said in a statement.

While addressing the Second IMF Statistical Forum in Washington, D.C. Lagarde said over the next 90 days, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United States will disseminate more comprehensive and internationally comparable data that will foster deeper understanding of risks in the financial sector, cross-border-financial linkages, and vulnerabilities of their economies to shocks.

Stefan Ingves, Sveriges Riksbank governor on his part said with this action, the authorities in all these countries have reiterated a strong commitment to transparency. “Adhering to SDDS Plus is in line with Sweden’s views on openness and transparency, as well as the importance of good quality statistics that are internationally comparable,” Ingves added.

According to him, the fact that Sweden is a country with a large financial sector makes it natural to follow the IMF’s recommendation for systemically-important countries to adhere to SDDS Plus.

The Fund says the announcement marks the formal launch of the SDDS Plus that was established in 2012 to reinforce and supplement the Fund’s Data Standards Initiatives. “It builds on the SDDS and its purpose is to assist member countries with regard to the publication of comprehensive, timely, accessible, and reliable economic and financial statistical data in a world of continuing economic and financial integration,” the global lender said.

The IMF further affirmed that the Data Standards Initiatives were established in the mid-1990s to enhance member countries’ data transparency and to promote the development of sound statistical systems.

It disclosed that the need for data standards was highlighted by the financial crises of the mid-1990s and again in the late-2000s, when information deficiencies were seen to play a role. “The Data Standards Initiatives also include the SDDS and the General Data Dissemination System (GDDS),” the Fund affirmed.