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At their meeting in Moscow in July 2013, the G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors welcomed the continued progress made by the G-20 economies on closing information gaps under the FSB and IMF G-20 Data Gaps Initiative (DGI) as a prerequisite for enhanced policy analysis.
They strongly encouraged the implementation of the recommendations in this initiative, and looked forward to the fourth annual progress report on the DGI for their meeting in October 2013. This report describes progress since November 2012 and the plans going forward.
It contains a number of key messages:
- Considerable progress has been made across the full range of the DGI 20 recommendations. Significant data enhancements are coming on stream.
- The feedback from the consultation process with experts indicates that, overall, there is strong support for, and a growing sense of ownership among G-20 economies in the DGI.
- To ensure complete implementation of the recommendations, and the timely provision of comparable economic and financial statistics, the momentum behind the initiative needs to be maintained and adequate resources provided for statistical work.
- Strengthened collaboration among national agencies and continued international cooperation, collaboration, and consultation is essential for the success of the initiative.
- The strategy going forward should focus on completing the ongoing work in implementing the recommendations; and communicating to policymakers and analysts the availability, benefits, confidentiality rules, and policy relevance of the enhanced and new data emerging from the DGI.
- Notwithstanding some national implementation issues that may arise, implementation of a significant portion of the recommendations is expected to be completed by end-2015, as can be seen in Figure 1.
The report seeks endorsement by the G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors of the action plans and timetables set out in Annex 1, including the key milestones presented in Figure 1. Continue reading.
