Experiences gained from GDDS compliance in the English-speaking Caribbean

Abstract

Introduction It is widely acknowledged that the adoption of internationally recognized standards, or codes of good practices, can help to improve economic policy-making and strengthen the international financial system. The international financial community has relied on the International Monetary Fund (IMF); and other standard setting agencies to develop standards/codes covering a number of economic and financial areas, including data dissemination, fiscal, monetary and financial policy transparency, banking regulation and supervision,securities and insurance regulation, accounting, auditing, bankruptcy and corporate governance. Over the past four decades, several examples abound where the international financial institutions have played the lead role in the formulation and monitoring of standards for statistical development. Some of the more common examples where member countries follow internationally recognized standards and guidelines include the publication, by the IMF, of Manuals for Money and Financial Statistics, Balance of Payments and External Debt Statistics and Government Finance Statistics; the System of National Accounts Manual (Latest Edition: 1993); prepared jointly by the United Nations, IMF, World Bank, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD); and the European Union (EU);; and the setting of standards by the Basle Committee on Banking Supervision. The General Data Dissemination System (GDDS); was introduced by the IMF to assist countries in the development of their overall statistical systems. This system is part of an initiative that aims to develop a set of standards that could guide member countries in their production and dissemination of economic data. The purpose of this paper is to review the implications and implementation of the GDDS in the English-speaking Caribbean. The paper reviews regional implementation efforts, to date, and makes recommendations for Caribbean countries to complete the implementation of the system in harmony with the requirements of the IMF.