OREANDA-NEWS. March 25, 2016. Management and staff of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) welcomed today the report released by the Independent Evaluation office (IEO) on “Behind the Scenes with Data at the IMF: an IEO Evaluation” and broadly supported its recommendations. The report assesses the Fund’s actions to leverage its data to support the institution in its fundamental role to foster global economic and financial stability.

“I am pleased by the IEO’s overall finding that the IMF’s statistics and data management activities are done to a high professional standard and are highly valued by the membership,” Managing Director Christine Lagarde said in a statement. “As noted in the report, our methodological manuals have become the “world standard” that countries seek to adopt and implement”, the IMF Managing Director noted. “The assessment further establishes that data provision has improved markedly over time—in part owing to the IMF’s “well-respected” capacity-building activities—which allowed the institution to keep abreast of the growing complexity and interconnectedness of the world economy. These findings are reassuring,” she added.

On the need to continue to improve Fund management of data and statistics, Ms. Lagarde noted that important efforts are underway in this regard. This includes the introduction of a new Fund-wide, data-management governance structure in 2012, which has delivered key reforms in the past three years. This has led to moving country work data from spreadsheets to structured databases, with associated gains in organizational clarity and improvement the use of metadata; consistency of processes; data validation and data sharing; and the ease of transfer of knowledge.

In her statement, Ms. Lagarde agreed with the suggestion to make clear the limits of IMF responsibility regarding the quality of disseminated data, together with clarifying the distinction between “IMF data” and “official data.” She is of the view that there is scope to clarify the limits of IMF responsibility regarding the quality of published data and metadata, recognizing that the quality of data depends ultimately on the member country producing the data.

See also Managing Director’s Statement on the IEO report and a summary of the Executive Board discussion.