2013 External Debt Statistics Course at the IMF Headquarter
Washington D.C., November 18 - December 13, 2013
2013 Public Sector Debt Statistics Course at JVI
Vienna, Austria, November 18-29, 2013
The Task Force on Finance Statistics (TFFS) sets methodological standards for statistics on external debt, and on public sector debt; promotes data availability on financial stocks, particularly external and public sector debt; encourages internationally accepted statistical practices to enhance data quality; and fosters inter-agency collaboration in statistical capacity building.
The current members of the TFFS are the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the Commonwealth Secretariat (ComSec), the European Central Bank (ECB), Eurostat, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Paris Club Secretariat, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and the World Bank. It is chaired by the Statistics Department of the IMF.
The TFFS was created in 1992 under the auspices of the United Nations Statistical Commission to take stock of the activities of the international organizations involved in finance statistics and to make recommendations aimed at streamlining their work, in particular to avoid duplication of activities.
In the wake of the financial crises of the mid-1990’s, its mandate was broadened in 1998, to coordinate work to improve the methodological soundness, transparency, timeliness, and availability of data on external debt and international reserves.
The TFFS meets annually either in Washington or in Europe, at the Headquarters of one of its members.
The TFFS reports every three years to the United Nations Statistical Commission, and annually to the IMF’s Committee on Balance of Payments Statistics (see Activity Reports).
