Ethiopia to Publish Stats on Global Data Portal

The government has begun publishing data on macroeconomics through a data portal under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) website. The system aims to provide a one-stop publication for essential data.

Data related to national accounts, government operations, debt, the monetary and financial sector and the balance of payments will be published on the National Summary Data Page (NSDP).

The publication will provide policymakers, domestic and international stakeholders, as well as the private sector, easy access to timely information critical for monitoring economic conditions and policies.

The country's GDP, consumer price index, central government operations and gross debt, depository corporations’ survey, central bank survey, interest rates, the balance of payments, official reserve assets, merchandise trade exchange rates and population status will be available on the portal.

Once the data and the information are posted on the page, official data producers from the National Bank of Ethiopia, the Ministry of Finance, the National Planning & Development Commission and the Central Statistical Agency (CSA) will continuously feed data into the portal. Biratu Yigezu, director-general of CSA, will coordinate the system.

The publication comes after the government of Ethiopia adopted the recommendations of the IMF’s Enhanced General Data Dissemination System (e-GDDS) for the release of critical data, according to a statement from the IMF.

The e-GDDS was established in May 2015 to support improved data transparency, encourage statistical development and help create synergies between data dissemination and policymaking.

The IMF forwarded specific recommendations for each type of data to be disseminated by the government offices that included which data should be published, what kind of information they should include, in what way they are to be presented, as well as the time frame to which the suggestions were to be met.