The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has announced it is making its online economic data accessible to everyone free of charge. This announcement means users now have access to a wealth of macroeconomic data covering all economic sectors of a large part of the IMF’s member countries.
“Good data can help policymakers identify and manage macroeconomic and financial vulnerabilities. The IMF’s online free data program seeks to expand usage and facilitate greater transparency and better policy choices,” IMF said in a statement.
The free data program “will help all those who draw on our data make better use of this vital statistical resource-from budget numbers to balance of payments data, debt statistics to critical global indicators,” said IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde in announcing this change at the recent Second IMF Statistical Forum.
To support the move to free data, the IMF has launched a new data portal which is an enhanced dissemination platform that allows users to search time series, access portals and create visualizations, as well as discover datasets, data news, and related documents, to name a few features. Time series can be collected in a workbook for further analysis.
The new data platform improves the way the IMF distributes data and statistics to its membership and users throughout the world. Users will have access to a wide range of macroeconomic data, which are compiled in accordance with internationally accepted statistical methodologies and are comparable across countries.
The data platform provides greater dynamic data visualizations, which show development over time and interact with each other. The platform strengthens the narrative and analysis of any data and allows users to customize their data experience. The new platform will help users visualize, download, query, and share data.
Even though much of IMF’s data were already free, historically, data compiled and published in the International Financial Statistics, Direction of Trade Statistics, Balance of Payments Statistics, and Government Finance Statistics have been subscription based.
IMF said it has discontinued charging for online datasets, but the print publications will still be charged to recover the cost of postage and printing