The Netherlands now complies with the latest IMF statistical standards

From today, the Netherlands officially complies with the new, highest standards of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the compilation and publication of economic and financial statistics. Statistics Netherlands (CBS) and De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) have cooperated closely over the past period to achieve this. The new standards are primarily aimed at bringing the financial and macro-economic risks of individual countries better into focus. For national and international users the standards offer better grouped and documented information that facilitates international comparisons and analysis .

The Netherlands is among the first nine countries to announce it will adhere to the Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) Plus from the beginning of 2015, together with the US, Germany and France among others. The IMF established this new standard in 2012 in order to improve the perception of financial sector risks, cross-border financial linkages, and vulnerabilities of the various economies to shocks. Countries with significant financial sectors in particular are encouraged to adhere to the new standards, thereby committing to strict requirements concerning the transparency, quality, international comparability, and timeliness of their statistics.

The Netherlands' fully updated National Summary Data Page  has links to all Dutch SDDS and SDDS Plus data, including improved downloading features and detailed descriptions of the sources and methods used. The various statistics presented are all compiled by Statistics Netherlands and DNB.

For more information about the Dutch compliance with the SDDS Plus, and background on the worldwide launch of this initiative, see also the press release [LINK VOLGT] that the IMF has released today.