Report on the Work of the Inter-Agency Group on Economic and Financial Statistics

1. Report on the Work of the Inter-Agency Group on Economic and Financial Statistics OECD Working Party on Financial Statistics Paris, November 2-3, 2009 Manik Shrestha IMF Statistics Department

2. Response of Statistics to the Global Crisis • History has demonstrated that crises create new demands for economic and financial data • this crisis is no different • The Statistics Department of the IMF is working along two tracks: • making data more accessible and timely for a wider audience; and • addressing new data needs arising from the crisis.

3. Response of Statistics to the Global Crisis • Global and coordinated view and actions are needed to address issues on data accessibility and data gaps • For this purpose, the Inter-Agency Group on Economic and Financial Statistics was created in December 2008 with IMF’s initiative • IMF chairs the Inter-Agency Group • Members include BIS, Eurostat, ECB, OECD, World Bank, and UN • Inter-Agency Group has high level representation

4. Inter-Agency Group: major milestones • December 2008 – established • February 2009 – meeting in New York to agree to launch the Principal Global Indicators (PGI) website • June 2009 – meeting in Basel to discuss improvements to PGI and data gaps • November 2009 – meeting in DC to agree on enhancements to PGI and actions for addressing data gaps • High level of collaboration has been a feature of the Group to date

5. Making Data More Accessible • Inter-Agency Group has focused on developing the Principal Global Indicators (PGI) website • The PGI was launched in April 2009 and is hosted at IMF.org • http://financialdatalink.sharepointsite.net/default.aspx

6. Making Data More Accessible • Initial focus of the PGI is on G-20 countries • timely and high frequency data on the financial, fiscal, external, and real sectors; • links to central banks, financial regulatory agencies, and other key websites (SDDS/GDDS country page); • access to data from partner international agencies; • provide data on cross-country format; • Promote data in more innovative way. • The intention is to expand country coverage and the scope over time, as resources permit. • The PGI website has been receiving a good level of hits (starting with around 1000 hits per day in the beginning to about 1500 hits in October.

13. PGI : Next Steps • The Inter-Agency Group is overseeing an enhancement to the PGI website with launch tentatively scheduled for end-December 2009 • Introduce layering approach to presenting data • Allow some analytic presentation of data (for example, ranking for unemployment rates) • Greater prominence to cross-country data presented in comparable unit of measurement (percent changes, ratios, ...) • The intention is to leverage the IMF data warehouse (IMF.Stat) and provide dynamic access to the data as well as offer data retrieval facility (SDMX-ML format)

14. Addressing Data Needs • In early months of 2009, the Inter-Agency Group reviewed data gaps revealed by the crisis which were identified through consultations with users, internally in their agencies or in other international forums. • February 2009: • Presentation to heads of national statistical agencies of G-20 countries in the context of the United Nations Statistical Commission meeting. • July 2009: • IMF and Financial Stability Board (FSB) organized a Users Conference at IMF Headquarters (primarily experts from G-20 countries and international agencies)

15. Addressing Data Needs • The Inter-Agency Group identified four significant areas of focus: • The financial sector, notablythose segments where the data reporting is not well established. • Sectoral Balance sheet, particularly dataof nonfinancial corporation and household sectors. • House prices and housing-related data, practice uneven across countries. • Ultimate risk/credit transfer instruments, where the risks lay, their scale and inter-connections among and between economies. • The work of the Inter-Agency Group on identifying data gaps has laid the ground for further advancing this work in the context of preparing a report to the G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors.

16. Addressing Data Needs(in cooperation with the FSB) • The G-20, Working Group 2 recommended in April 2009: • “….the IMF and the FSF explore gaps and provide appropriate proposals for strengthening data collection before the next meeting of G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors.” • At the Spring Meetings (April 2009), the IMF’s International and Financial Committee welcomed • “…the work of the IMF with the Financial Stability Board (FSB) to provide better indicators of systemic risks and address data gaps, and underline the importance of international cooperation in preventing such systemic risks.”

17. Addressing Data Needs(in cooperation with the FSB) • Initial steps to carry this work forward have been taken: • contacting the FSB, • Arranging meetings with the Inter-Agency Group • A Users Conference was organized in July, primarily for users from G-20 countries • The preparation for the report to the G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors is well advanced • The report includes 20 recommendations for addressing data gaps and will be a main agenda item of the Inter-Agency Group meeting in November 16-17, 2009 • Report back to G-20 in June 2010 on the actions taken by that date and future plans and timetable for addressing each outstanding recommendation

18. Addressing Data Needs(in cooperation with the FSB) • The report to G-20 on the financial crisis and information gaps identifies four main themes: • Build-up of risk in the financial sector • Improve coverage of indicators of financial health and soundness of financial institutions, particularly “shadow banking system” • Develop measures of aggregate leverage and maturity mismatches in the financial system • Improve coverage of risk transfers and improve disclosure requirements for complex structured products • Cross-border financial linkages • Better understand cross-border financial linkages of systematically important global financial institutions • Strengthen data collection on cross-border banking flows and positions

19. Addressing Data Needs(in cooperation with the FSB) • The report to G-20 on the financial crisis and information gaps identifies four main themes: • Vulnerability of domestic economies to shocks • Strengthen sectoral coverage of national balance sheets and flow of funds data • Promote timely and cross-country standardized and comparable government finance statistics • Disseminate more comparable data on real estate prices • Improving communication • Improve the communication of official statistics and close gaps in availability of data to users

20. Addressing Data Needs • The Inter-Agency Group will continue to collaborate and intends to work with countries to move forward the challenging but important agenda set by the G-20. • Addressing data needs will require internationally coordinated efforts among international organizations and countries.