16 Mar 2016

Accurate and timely data enables correct and factual analysis to be carried out for purposes of informing policy formulation and keeping stakeholders abreast of key developments, says the acting deputy statistician general

Officially opening a 10-day debt statistics and reporting workshop hosted by Macro-economic and Financial Management Institute of Eastern and Southern Africa (MEFMI) in collaboration with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Ms Boitumelo Matlhaga said accurate and timely data facilitates activities such as a debt sustainability analyses to formulate effective debt strategies and borrowing policies.

“Furthermore, quality data provides a firm basis for accurate monitoring and evaluation of government finances,” she said.

She said the workshop would focuse on enhancing participants capacity to collect, compile and disseminate public debt and government finance statistics based on existing international standards and conventions.

“The outcome will be very important in ensuring that countries have comprehensive, accurate and consistent public debt and government finance statistics which is a key prerequisite for effective public debt strategy and fiscal policy formulation,” said Ms Matlhaga.

She said given the significance of sound statistics, MEFMI has since its inception continued to prioritise capacity building in the development and maintenance of high quality macro-economic and financial information needed by member states.

“I am aware of efforts that the IMF and other global partners have made to ensure that reliable and accurate information on government finances is readily available and this is evident from various international reporting standards and conventions being developed,” she said.

She said the reporting standards and conventions were not only meant to improve the quality of statistics, but also promote convergence of recording and dissemination practices as well as enabling broader analysis by allowing comparisons across countries to be undertaken on a clear and consistent basis.

Ms Matlhaga further said while there has been progress in building databases by member states, there was room to improve reporting and dissemination of information in a way that satisfies stakeholders diverse information requirements.

“For some years, a number of countries in the region only went as far as complying with the IMF General Data Dissemination System (GDDS) and are yet to accede to the more stringent reporting requirements under the Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) and SDDS Plus,” she said.

She added that the IMF has introduced the Enhanced General Data Dissemination System (e-GDDS) which superseded the GDDS.

Ms Matlhaga said there was a need to further improve transparency and disclosure of information through enhancing the quality, coverage and timeliness of reporting to meet international standards. She noted that one of the key requirements of the e-GDDS was to publish data on key macro-economic indicators on a web based National Summary Data Page (NSDP).

“Publication of essential macro-economic data through NSDP provides policy makers and other stakeholders easy access to information for monitoring economic performance and decision making, and I am pleased to inform you that Botswana is already implementing this recommendation of the e-GDDS,” said the acting deputy statistician.

She said from an investor perspective, regular, timely and accurate disclosure of information was one of the key variables used in country risk assessment and credit rating, and that it was even more important in the post-crisis era where equity and bond investors were more careful in assessing the creditworthiness of sovereign borrowers prior to investing their funds.

Ms Matlhaga urged participants to make full use of the workshop and to learn not only from the invited experts, but also from each other’s experiences through information sharing.ENDS