Background: Manifestations of the Recent Global Crisis

1. The Inter-Agency Group on Economic and Financial Statistics (IAG) and the G-20 Data Gaps InitiativeAlfredo M. LeoneDeputy Director, Statistics DepartmentSide Event at the42st session of the United Nations Statistical Commission New York, February 23, 2011

2. Background: Manifestations of the Recent Global Crisis • Notably severe in terms of lost output and high unemployment. • Affected all the industrialized, and a large number of emerging and developing economies • Has a high speed of propagation worldwide revealing the interconnections across economies and markets. • Involved systemically important global financial institutions (G-SIFIs), with operations spreading across many markets worldwide.

3. Data Dimensions • Highlighted criticalimportance of relevant statistics that are timely, consistent, and comparable across countries. • Revealed additional statistical needs for proper financial stability analysis: • Identifying leverage and risk-taking • Understanding interconnectedness: • Across sectors within an economy • Cross borders • Among G-SIFIs • Identified room for improvement in the communication of official statistics.

4. International Response: Brief Chronology (1)

5. International Response: Brief Chronology (2) • Establishment of the Inter-Agency Group on Economic and Financial Statistics, IAG (2008) • BIS, ECB, Eurostat, IMF (Chair), OECD, UN, WB • Coordinate work to explore data gaps and strengthen data collection • Established Principal Global Indicators (PGI) Website: http://www.principalglobalindicators.org/default.aspx • G-20 request to the IMF and the Financial Stability Board (FSB) to explore gaps and provide proposals to address them to the G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors. • Reports provided in November 2009 and June 2010. • Data gaps identified and work plans and timetables endorsed by the G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors. • Additional report requested by June 2011.

6. International Response: Brief Chronology (3) • IMFC (IMF Governing Body) welcomed and endorsed the work of the IMF and FSB to provide better indicators of systemic risks and address data gaps (April 2009 and October 2010) • IMF Executive Board approved enhancements to the IMF Special Data Dissemination Standard: • Seven Financial Soundness Indicators (encouraged) • Quarterly International Investment Position with one quarter lag (required after 4-year transition period) • External debt on a remaining maturity basis (encouraged)

7. There Exist Conceptual/ Statistical Frameworks and Ongoing Collection Conceptual Statistical Framework Needs Further Development DATA GAPS # 2 Financial Soundness Indicators (FSIs) #5 Credit Default Swaps #7 Securities # 10, #11, #12 Coordinated Portfolio Investment Survey, International Banking Statistics, International Investment Positions #15 Institutional Sector Accounts # 17 Government Finance Statistics # 18 Public Sector Debt #19 Real Estate Prices #20 Principal Global Indicators (PGIs) # 3 Tail Risk in the Financial System #4 Aggregate Leverage and Maturity Mismatches; #6 Structured Products #8 and # 9 Global Network Connections and Systemically Important Global Institutions # 13 and #14 Financial and Nonfinancial Corporations’ Cross Border Exposures #16 Distributional Information Build-up of Risk in the Financial Sector Cross-border Financial Linkages Vulnerability of Domestic Economies to Shocks Improving Communication of Official Statistics

8. Consultation Process • UNSC Side Events: 2009-2011 • IMF/FSB G-20 Senior Officials Conferences: • July 2009 and March 2011, Washington, D.C., USA • April 2010, Basel, Switzerland • IMF Statistics Department Seminar at IMF/World Bank 2010 Annual Meetings: Financial Stability—The Data Challenge, (video available at: http://www-imf04pcs.imf.org/external/mmedia/view.aspx?vid=632822639001). • IMF staff visits to G-20 economies: • Meetings with officials at Central Banks, Ministries of Finance, and National Statistics Institutes (ongoing, to be completed in March 2011)

9. Emerging Views from the Consultations • Broad agreement on the identified data gaps that need to be addressed • Recognition that enhancements to existing datasets could address certain gaps in the near future • Other gaps would take longer and require additional resources • The inter-agency coordination is very much welcome. IAG and PGI seen as major steps forward, but it needs to be intensified, including by: • Reducing reporting burden to countries • Developing common templates to facilitate common sourcing of data • Improving data sharing across international institutions

10. Concluding Remarks • Considerable progress is being made in addressing data gaps, with individual IAG agencies allocated to lead specific recommendations. • Already the outcomes of these efforts are yielding results, notably in credit default swaps, securities, CPIS, IIP, government finance statistics, public debt, real estate prices, and in the communication of statistics (the PGI). • Data Dissemination Standards (GDDS and SDDS) have been strengthened. • But challenges remain ahead: • Implementation plans and timetables will need to be firmed up • Development of new data frameworks will need to be completed • Resources will need to be identified and allocated to statistical work • Coordination and collaboration—not only among IAG agencies, but also with and within national statistical agencies will need to be strengthened.