The Republic of Palau began participating in the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) General Data Dissemination System (GDDS) on August 28, 2013, marking a major step forward in the development of its statistical system. Comprehensive information on Palau’s statistical production and dissemination practices now appears on the IMF’s Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board (http://dsbb.imf.org/Applications/web/gdds/gddscountrylist/).

Palau is the 109th GDDS participant (excluding the countries that have graduated from the GDDS to the Special Data Dissemination Standard).

To mark the occasion, Hon. Elbuchel Sadang, Minister of Finance, noted: “Palau is committed to use the IMF’s General Data Dissemination System as a general framework to continue developing the national statistical system consistent with the best international practices.”

Mr. Louis Marc Ducharme, Director of the IMF Statistics Department, observed: “Palau’s participation in the GDDS is an important milestone, and marks a definitive stage from which Palau’s statistical development could take-off. I am pleased to welcome Palau’s participation in the GDDS.”

The GDDS was established by the IMF in 1997. It provides a framework to help countries to develop their statistical systems to produce comprehensive and accurate statistics for policymaking and analysis.