Data Availability
In addition to its work on methodological standards, the TFFS endeavors to promote availability of data on external debt by redisseminating through online databases selected data produced by its member organizations on economies’ financial stocks outstanding.
The Quarterly External Debt Statistics Database
The Quarterly External Debt Statistics Database (QEDS) was launched in November 2004 initially for Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) subscribing economies. The database was expanded to a selected number of General Data Dissemination System (GDDS) economies in February 2008, mainly Low-Income Countries (LICs). For more information on the SDDS and GDDS, please refer to the following page: Data quality.
The QEDS database, jointly developed by the World Bank and the IMF, brings together detailed external debt data reported by economies that subscribe to the IMF’s SDDS and economies that participate in the IMF's GDDS. Specific country notes are also available on the website. The benefit of bringing together comparable external debt data is to facilitate macroeconomic analysis and cross-country data comparison. The database is updated quarterly within one month of the end of a quarter.
As of November 2008, 61 economies have agreed to participate in the SDDS/QEDS database and 16 GDDS economies to provide data to the GDDS/QEDS database. The IMF and the World Bank are encouraging additional GDDS countries to participate in the centralized database; they are supported in this effort by the Commonwealth Secretariat (ComSec) and the United Nations Commission on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) who have close contacts with over 115 economies in respect with their work on debt management and reporting.
The Joint External Debt Hub
The Joint External Debt Hub (JEDH) was launched in March 2006. It was developed in cooperation among the IMF, the BIS, the OECD, and the World Bank. The JEDH brings together national external debt data provided by 58 subscribers to the IMF's SDDS, and three participants in the IMF’s GDDS; creditor/market sourced external debt and selected foreign assets data for over 200 economies; and associated metadata for the two sets of statistics. The national external debt data are sourced from the World Bank's QEDS, and the creditor/market data are sourced from the four agencies involved; the latter include data on insured export credit commitments collected by the BIS from the Berne Union (a worldwide association of export credit and investment insurers).
The creditor/market data cover the external debt of developed, developing and transition economies, and also include statistics on selected foreign assets, including international reserves. Although the data do not provide a completely comprehensive and consistent measure of total external debt for each economy, they bring together the best international comparative data currently available in this area.
Methodological notes (metadata) available on the website explain the coverage, definitions and limitations of the data. The website also contains background information on the data series and their sources.
Additional information
Users may also find it useful to access the following websites for additional perspectives on elements presented in the JEDH:
- BIS Banking and Securities Statistics
- IMF Members' Financial Data by Country
- Amounts due to Paris Club creditor countries by foreign sovereign and other public debtors
- Coordinated Portfolio Investment Survey
- Data Template on International Reserves and Foreign Currency Liquidity
Public sector debt reporting template
Under the auspices of the TFFS, the Statistics Department of the IMF, in collaboration with the IMF’s Strategy, Policy and Review Department, has developed a template to strengthen the reporting and monitoring of public debt statistics. This initiative is expected to generate more uniform and comprehensive data on public debt than was previously available, thus enhancing the analysis of fiscal sustainability. The public debt template has been tested with a group of volunteer countries (Chile, Finland, Grenada, Hong Kong, Italy, and Uruguay). At its March 2007 meeting, the TFFS approved the IMF’s proposal to include in the public debt template data that are readily available from existing data sources. Work is still ongoing.