Countries publish more detailed international reserves data on Internet

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In a news brief, the IMF announced that as of June 29, 2000, 41 of the 47 subscribers to the Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) are publishing data on international reserves and foreign currency liquidity according to an internationally agreed template. The information, which is available on the web-sites of the countries’ central banks or finance ministries, provides comprehensive and timely data on these subscribers’ international reserves and related obligations. In addition, one country that does not subscribe to the SDDS also publishes data according to the template. The countries’ sites are hyperlinked to the IMF’s Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board (DSBB), which is accessible to the public on the IMF’s external website at http://dsbb.imf.org.

The template on international reserves and foreign currency liquidity was developed jointly by the IMF and a working group of the Committee on the Global Financial System of the Group of Ten central banks. The template provides for improved disclosure of countries’ data on international reserves and related items.

Reserves template

The template calls for data that cover both the monetary authorities and the central government. It provides for data on the authorities’ liquid foreign currency resources (encompassing official reserve assets and other foreign currency assets); their short-term foreign currency obligations (including those arising from foreign currency liabilities, financial...