Economic and financial indicators according to the SDDS Plus

Austria has subscribed to the IMF’s Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) since its introduction in 1996, with the OeNB in the coordinating role. In response to the global economic and financial crisis, the IMF enhanced the SDDS in February 2012, creating the SDDS Plus as the highest tier of the IMF’s Data Standards Initiatives. In line with the IMF’s goal of improving global data transparency, subscribing countries commit to publishing key economic and financial data that are comprehensive and well defined with the prescribed periodicity and timeliness.

Austria achieved full compliance with all SDDS Plus requirements in January 2017. Implementation of the SDDS obligates several Austrian institutions – including Statistics Austria, the Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO), the Association of Austrian Social Security Institutions, the Public Employment Service Austria (AMS), the Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance, Wiener Börse AG, the Austrian Treasury (OeBFA) and the OeNB – to compile a set of indicators as specified by the IMF. Apart from the provision of detailed information about statistical practices, or metadata, the SDDS requires the timely publication of these data on a dedicated web page, the so-called National Summary Data Page. In addition, the IMF must be provided with an advance release calendar that contains the release dates for each prescribed data category in the upcoming four months.

The IMF regularly monitors subscribing countries’ SDDS observance and publishes the results of its country-specific assessments (launched in 2006) in Annual Observance Reports.