Behind Schedule? Assessing Global Developments in the Provision of Economic Statistics

Summary

We introduce a novel monthly index to measure developments in the provision of official economic statistics based on publicly disclosed observance records of subscribers to the IMF Data Standards Initiatives -- the IMF's policy framework to promote the timely publications of macroeconomic and financial data. While data is typically published in a timely manner, we document a notable decline in timely data releases since 2017. Persistent challenges in fiscal data dissemination, divergent trends in AEs and EMEs, and regional differences contribute to these dynamics. The overall decline also mirrors other global governance trends and the public disclosure of economic data tends to get less timely for some economies during turbulent periods. Strained resources devoted to statistical services can help rationalize. Through empirical applications, we demonstrate that these newly constructed indices contain predictive information for fiscal outcomes and economic downturns. Our findings demonstrate that while the Initiatives successfully promote the timely release of key macroeconomic and financial data, maintaining robust data dissemination requires sustained institutional capacity and adequate resource provision, especially during periods of distress when timely information is most crucial to support resolving macroeconomic imbalances and market disequilibria.