Data Availability
In addition to its work on methodological standards, the TFFS endeavors to promote availability of data on external and public sector debt by redisseminating data produced by its member organizations on economies’ debt positions.
Debtor Sources
Quarterly External Debt Statistics Database
The Quarterly External Debt Statistics Database (QEDS), jointly developed by the World Bank and the IMF, brings together detailed external debt data reported by economies that subscribe to the IMF’s Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) and economies that participate in the IMF's General Data Dissemination System (GDDS). The benefit of bringing together comparable external debt data is to facilitate macroeconomic analysis and cross-economy data comparison. The database is updated quarterly within one month of the end of a quarter.
The QEDS was launched in November 2004 initially for SDDS subscribing economies. The database was expanded to a selected number of 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 includes economy and cross-economy tables, and enables users to query and extract data, by economy, group of economies, and specific external debt components. The QEDS database is linked to metadata on external debt for individual economies maintained by the IMF.
The QEDS database is linked to the 2013 EDS Guide and it was updated in line with BPM6 in October 2014, in close consultation with TFFS member agencies. The QEDS have embedded their own metadata.
Public Sector Debt Database
The Public Sector Debt (PSD) statistics database, jointly developed by the World Bank and the IMF and launched in December 2010, brings together detailed quarterly public sector debt data of a global sample of economies. The purpose of the PSD statistics database is to facilitate timely dissemination in standard formats of public sector debt data. By bringing such data and metadata together in one central location, the database supports macroeconomic analysis and cross-economy comparison.
The database is updated quarterly and within one month of the end of a quarter. These databases aim to support economies' efforts toward improving the coverage and availability of PSD statistics.
The PSD statistics database enables users to query and extract data, by economy, group of economies, and specific public debt components. The PSD statistics database is linked to the PSDS Guide.
Creditor Sources
The Joint External Debt Hub
The Joint External Debt Hub (JEDH) launched in March 2006 was developed in cooperation among the IMF, the BIS, the OECD, and the World Bank. The JEDH brings together creditor/market sourced external debt and selected foreign assets data for over 200 economies; national EDS provided by SDDS subscribers and GDDS participants; and associated metadata for the two sets of data. The creditor/market data are sourced by the four agencies involved. The national external debt data are sourced from QEDS database.
The creditor/market include data collected by the BIS from the Berne Union (a worldwide association of export credit and investment insurers) on insured export credit commitments, as well as from the Paris-Club on the external claims of its members. These 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.
JEDH also provides comparisons of individual country data for three broad debt instruments categories: loans+deposits, debt securities, and credit.
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 Economy
- Amounts due to Paris Club creditor countries by foreign sovereign and other public debtors
- Coordinated Direct Investment Survey (CDIS)
- Coordinated Portfolio Investment Survey (CPIS)
- Data Template on International Reserves and Foreign Currency Liquidity