Introduction

Objectives of SDDS

Turkey in SDDS

Index of Data Categories covered in SDDS

The role of SIS as the country coordinator

Introduction

1. In our era the reliable information is the most critical source for effective decision making. The position of the countries will be more powerful with the development of communication technology and information network resulting in rapid globalisation and interdependence of the world economy. Accurate and reliable data as well as rapid and continuous information flow have gained importance in dealing with problems that mankind confronts in social, economic and political matters. The importance of sound official statistics is not simply confined to the national political and economic arenas. The financial crises in emerging market countries over the last three years demonstrate that the international community too has a legitimate interest in the quality of statistical outputs from individual nations. Globalisation has reinforced this fact, especially the expansion of international capital markets during past decades. In this sense, the system of standards and of dissemination of information on the Internet established by the IMF in 1996 is a step toward the globalisation of statistical information.

2. In the following items, it is given a short overview on the developments realised in Turkey by introducing SDDS, the responsibilities of the related institutions, the changes required for the integration the SDDS into the statistical practices, briefly Turkey’s integration of the IMF’s Special Data Dissemination Standards into statistical practices. For the detailed information on SDDS please click http://dsbb.imf.org .

Objectives of SDDS

3. The need for countries to adhere to internationally recognized standards in a broad range of economic and financial statistics is the central theme of the IMF's SDDS initiatives. It is aimed to improve the timeliness and quality of key statistics in the subscribing countries for policy-making and monitoring through the promulgation of the SDDS. In the area of the data dissemination, the IMF recognized the SDDS as a "best practice" standard for countries active in or seeking access to international capital markets. SDDS has been developed as a response to the crisis in financial markets in late 1994 early 1995. So, the importance of the quality and timeliness of the statistics included in SDDS is highlighted once more during the recent financial crisis.

Turkey in SDDS

4. Since long before SDDS subscription, Turkish Institutions compiling the statistical data have released the reliable statistics in conformity with the international standards as it was stated in their Establishment Law. Though the subscription to the SDDS was not required any legislative or administrative change to the Institutions in Turkey, a substantial volume of work has been undertaken to change their statistical programs to align with SDDS requirements.

5. Brief overview on Turkey’s integration of the IMF’s Special Data Dissemination Standards into statistical practices is as follows:   - Turkey subscribed to SDDS on 9th August 1996 voluntarily. Turkish Statistical Institute (TURKSTAT) was assigned as SDDS coordinator of Turkey. - The metadata pages of Turkey on 18 data categories were posted on the Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board (DSBB) on 16th September 1996, opening day of DSBB to the public. Turkey developed the National Summary Data Page (NSDP) and established the hyperlinks amongst DSBB and NSDP, on 5th June 1997. - Summary methodology on Consumer Price Index (CPI) designed to shed light on data quality was added on DSBB for seven countries in September 1997. - In the context of the initiative of the Fund to develop a common database on the template on international reserves and foreign currency liquidity, Turkey began to report reserves template data to the Fund for inclusion in the database. The data template of international reserves & foreign currency liquidity on a monthly basis disseminated on DSBB on 7th June 2000. - Turkey met the specifications for the coverage, periodicity, and timeliness of the SDDS data, and for the dissemination of advance release calendars on July 20, 2001. An announcement has been made on the DSBB "What's New" page.

6. In Turkey, four different institutions are involved in supplying the data for the SDDS: Central Bank (CB) covers monetary and financial statistics; the Undersecratariat of Treasury (UT) and the State Planning Organisation (SPO) are responsible for fiscal data and TURKSTAT handles all nonfinancial data, that is, real sector data. Information on share price indices are compiled by İstanbul Stock Exchange (İSE) and redisseminated by CB.

Index of Data Categories covered in SDDS

- Real Sector (The data for this category are disseminated by TURKSTAT) - National accounts (Quarterly GNP) - Production indices (Monthly Industrial Production Index) - Forward-looking indicators (Expected Capacity Utilization) - Labor market - Employment - Unemployment - Wages or earnings - Price indices - Consumer price (Consumer Price Index) - Producer prices (Wholesale Price Index) - Fiscal Sector - General government or public sector operations (the data for this category are disseminated by SPO) - Central Government Operations (the data for this category are disseminated by UT) - Central Government Debt (the data for this category are disseminated by UT) - Financial Sector (the data for this category are disseminated by CB) - Analytical Accounts of the banking sector - Analytical Accounts of the central bank - Interest rates - Stock market: share price index - External Sector (the data for this category are disseminated by CB) - Balance of Payments - International Reserves - Merchandise Trade (the data for this category are disseminated by TURKSTAT) - International Investment Position - Exchange Rates - Population (the data for this category are disseminated by the TURKSTAT)

The role of SIS as the country coordinator

7. The responsibilities of TURKSTAT as the country coordinator are as follows: - Act as a main counterpart of IMF's Data Dissemination Standards Division for the integration of SDDS into the statistical practices of Turkey. - Distribute all necessary materials, documents, guidelines, and information to the other responsible institutions and the related divisions in TURKSTAT. - Guide the institutions on developing and updating the metadata pages for DSBB and collect the metadata pages to send IMF. - Follow the studies of the responsible institutions to complete on time. - Provide the coordination among the institutions and IMF. - Prepare, revise and update NSDP. - Establish the hyperlinks amongst DSBB, NSDP and the web site of the responsible institutions and control to operate the hyperlinks in order. - Maintain and update the advance release calendar. TURKSTAT announces the publication dates for indicators supplied by the subscribing agencies to SDDS on TURKSTAT’ web site, however the individual agencies are responsible for announcing any changes made necessary by unforseen circumstances that arise after the calendar is prepared. - A mission of International Monetary Fund (IMF), which was in Ankara between 18 and 30 October 2001 for preparing a Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC) for Turkey, has worked with the relevant institutions (TURKSTAT, SPO, Treasury, Central Bank and Ministry of Finance) on the following subjects. · Assessment of legal and institutional framework of Turkish Statistical System · Overview of integration studies to the IMF's SDDS · In-debt-assessments of data sets on national accounts, price indices, fiscal and financial sector, banking sector and balance of payments During this period, the IMF mission has applied a User Opinions Survey to data producing institutions besides public and private sector users and held meetings with some data users. As a result of these assessments, Turkey's ROSC was disseminated on March 14 2002, on the IMF's website (http://www.imf.org/external/np/rosc/rosc.asp). In the context of ROSC, on the basis of assessments of the IMF mission and TURKSTAT's experts it was decided that it would be useful to provide technical assistance on the subjects of national accounts and price statistics by the IMF. In this direction, consultancy services on national accounts and price statistics were realized by IMF experts between 15-26 April 2002 and 16-27 September 2002 respectively.

The responsible group for SDDS is the Data Dissemination Group at TURKSTAT. The communication address is as follows: Tel: 90 312 410 02 13 or 0 312 410 02 15 Fax: 90 312 417 04 32 or 0 312 425 68 41 E-mail: sdds.turkey@tuik.gov.tr

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