Bahrain implements IMF's Enhanced General Data Dissemination System

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With the successful launch of the new data portal, the National Summary Data Page (NSDP) on Thursday, Bahrain has implemented a key recommendation of the IMF’s Enhanced General Data Dissemination System (e-GDDS) to publish essential macroeconomic and financial data.

The e-GDDS is the first tier of the IMF Data Standards Initiatives that promote transparency as a global public good and encourage countries to voluntarily publish timely data that is essential for monitoring and analysing economic performance, said an IMF statement.

The implementation of the e-GDDS recommendations and the launch of the new data portal are a testament to Bahrain’s commitment to data transparency, it said.

The publication of the data through the NSDP will enable national decision-makers, domestic and international stakeholders, investors, and rating agencies to have easy access to information that the IMF's Executive Board has identified as essential for monitoring a country's economic and financial developments. More broadly, having data in line with the e-GDDS means it should be accessible in a standardized way to facilitate analysis of economic trends across countries and to provide an early detection of risks to help avert economic crises, thus supporting sustainable economic growth and development.

Bert Kroese, Chief Statistician and Data Officer, and Director of the IMF’s Statistics Department, welcomed this major milestone in the country’s statistical development. “I am confident that Bahrain will benefit from using the e-GDDS as a framework for further development of its statistical system,” Kroese stated.

The benefits, including better sovereign financing conditions for countries participating in the e-GDDS, have recently been reviewed by the IMF Executive Board in the context of the Tenth Review of the IMF Data Standards Initiatives.

The NSDP will serve as a one-stop publication for disseminating data covering national accounts and prices, government operations and debt, the monetary and financial sector, and the external sector. Making this information easily accessible in one place and following a predetermined schedule, including in a format that allows machine-to-machine readability and transfer, will enable all users to simultaneously access timely data, ensuring greater transparency.

A link to Bahrain’s NSDP is available on the IMF’s Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board. The data is provided by the Ministry of Finance and National Economy, the Central Bank of Bahrain, and the Information and eGovernment Authority. Today’s launch of the NSDP shows the country’s commitment to subscribe to the Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) in the near future, it added.