Shongedzai Mugwagwa

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has applauded Zimbabwe for its successful implementation of one of the key recommendations of the Fund’s Enhanced General Data Dissemination System (e-GDDS) which is used to publish essential macro-economic and financial data.

In a press statement published on IMF’s website, on 14 March 2023, IMF’s Chief Statistics and Data officer and Director Statistics Department, Bert Kroese said that the successful launch of a data portal by Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Finance and Economic Development was a positive indicator of transparency by the Government that would make it easier for monitoring and analysing economic performance.

“I am confident that Zimbabwe will benefit from using the e-GDDS as a framework for further development of its statistical system,” said IMF.

The implementation of the e-GDDS recommendation and launch of the data portal—the National Summary Data page—were a testament to Zimbabwe’s commitment to data transparency. The portal launched by Zimbabwe will serve as a one stop publication for disseminating the data recommended under the IMF guidelines, covering national accounts and prices, Government operations and debt, the monetary and financial sector, and the external factor,” said Kroese

Additionally, the IMF stated that with the launch of the e-GDDS by Zimbabwe, information will become easily accessible resulting in greater data transparency. The IMF further revealed that Zimbabwe’s data portal is hosted on Zimbabwe’s national Open Data Platform (ODP) which is provided by the African Development Bank and utilises a modern data publication technology. The launch of the data portal by Zimbabwe was supported by an IMF technical assistance project financed by the government of Japan.