Malta becomes 31st country to adhere to highest IMF standards on data transparency

Malta has become the latest country to adhere to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) special data dissemination standard plus (SDDS plus), becoming the 31st country to obtain this milestone.

By adhering to the SDDS Plus, Malta complies with the most rigorous standards for disseminating essential macroeconomic and financial data about the state of the economy and its financial linkages as established in the IMF data standards initiatives.

This also means that the country is committed to disseminating new data categories, such as general Government gross debt and financial soundness indicators among others more regularly.

Bert Kroese, director of the IMF’s statistics department, said, “Malta’s adherence not only provides a richer canvas for macroeconomic and financial sector analyses, but it could also help bolster Malta’s standing in international capital markets.”

During a joint press conference between the Central Bank of Malta (CBM) and the National Statistics Office (NSO), the CBM’s governor Edward Scicluna said, “the dissemination of the new datasets for Malta under the SDDS Plus will be invaluable in fostering a deeper understanding and more informed assessments of the performance of Malta’s financial and other sectors of the economy, gross Government debt, and debt securities in general.”

The press conference was carried out on the Monday (yesterday) to commemorate Malta’s achievement in fulfilling the requirements to adhere to the standard.

Etienne Caruana, NSO director general, said that adherence to SDDS Plus also encourages cooperation and collaboration, promoting the exchange of knowledge, best practices, and technical assistance among member countries.

Currently, almost all European Union member states adhere to SDDS Plus standards, except Greece, Poland, Croatia, Cyprus, and Ireland. Other countries which also adhere to the standards include the UK, Switzerland, USA, Canada, Brazil, Chile, and Japan.

The standards were launched in 2012 and were developed to build on previous standards simply known as the special data dissemination standard, which was established in 1996.

Currently, 95 per cent of the IMF’s members adhere to some form of data transparency with the institution.

Featured Image : Central Bank of Malta governor Edward Scicluna via CBM.