Bolivia is not yet a subscriber to the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS), although it does participate in the less rigorous General Data Dissemination System (GDDS) since the year 2000, as is evident from the GDDS website. In 2007 the IMF released a Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC) covering Bolivia's data dissemination regime. The report notes that Bolivia has plans to subscribe to the SDDS at some future time. The ROSC found that Bolivia's statistics are generally adequate for monitoring purposes, and that some of the required and encouraged data sets meet requirements of timeliness, coverage, and periodicity, but added that significant deficiencies remain to be addressed. While the principle statistical agencies of Bolivia, including the National Institute of Statistics, the Ministry of Finance, and the Central Bank of Bolivia maintain websites on which statistical material is posted, these sites provide data in Spanish only.

General Overview

According to their respective websites, maintained by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Bolivia does not subscribe to the IMF's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) but rather has been a participant to the less rigorous General Data Dissemination System since the year 2000. In 2007, the IMF published a Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC) which notes that Bolivia entertains hopes of qualifying for SDDS subscription in the future. The 2007 IMF Article IV Consultations report found that, generally speaking, Bolivia's statistical product is adequate for monitoring purposes. While the ROSC found several of datasets provided by Bolivia meet standards of timeliness, coverage, and periodicity, the report went on to note that serious deficiencies still need to be addressed. A number of statistical publications are made available on the websites of three of Bolivia's four major data-generating agencies, the Ministry of Finance (MdH), the Central Bank of Bolivia (BCB), and the National Statistics Institute (INE). However, these websites are in the Spanish language only. In 2003, Bolivia passed Supreme Decree No. 27329, the provisions of which affirm Bolivia's commitment to achieving transparency and access to public information. The text of the decree is available on the internet but is available only in Spanish.

As mentioned above, the ROSC identifies four significant data collecting agencies in Bolivia: the INE, the MdH, the BCB, and the Superintendency of Banks and Financial Entities (SBFE). All are legally mandated to compile and disseminate data. The law governing the INE requires the protection of individual data. However, there is no specific legal sanction for noncompliance. All statistical reporting agencies provide guidelines for staff and official conduct, and legal sanctions exist in the case of violations. The BCB's formal Code of Conduct specifically covers integrity, confidentiality, and professional independence. New hires must sign a confidentiality agreement. The ROSC describes INE's practice as involving the application of "strict technical principles and professional ethics in the compilation and dissemination of statistics, and promotes a culture of professionalism" (p. 5), and the report attributes a similar level of professionalism to the other three agencies. While the INE does not publish on its website the terms and conditions it employs to produce statistics, there are a variety of publications that contain this information and that can be made available to the public. Both the MoF and the BCB do publish their terms and conditions online. Notice of early government access to INE data is not broadly announced, although it is disclosed on the IMF's GDDS website. The BCB makes this information available online. The ROSC found weaknesses in the INE's survey programs, particularly with regard to national accounts data. In the ROSC, the Fund staff suggested that the INE provide greater resources in order to "establish a regular program of economic surveys for national accounts and to improve the quality of the PPI [producer price index]" (p. 5). The ROSC also suggested that the INE consider strengthening its outreach to data users. The BCB was found to be appropriately resourced for some tasks, but inadequate to carry out the surveys on which balance-of-payment statistics are based. According to the ROSC, the BCB "maintains some informal contacts with data users, but there are no formal mechanisms to monitor the relevance of the statistics or to identify emerging data requirements" (p. 5).

The ROSC reported several "important shortcomings" (p. 6) in the soundness of the methodologies used by Bolivia's statistical agencies, largely due to their slowness in adopting the newest editions of standard statistical manuals. The scope of coverage could be improved across the board. For instance, the government finance statistics does not include certain local government and decentralized agency data, and central government operations data is not consolidated. On the other hand, some effort is made to generate indirect estimates of production and trade at the fringes or outside of the formal economy, such as activities linked to cocaine production. Classification and sectorization systems depart, sometimes significantly, from best practices. The adoption of accrual accounting is recommended.

The ROSC found that only monetary statistics enjoy sufficiently rich and high quality source data that enables high accuracy and reliability, and consumer price data are "reasonably available" (p. 6), but for all other datasets the sources are inadequate. Surveys are not sufficiently inclusive, and censuses are not carried out regularly. Source data validation procedures are generally sound but need to be enhanced for national accounts and price index data. The ROSC noted that most datasets suffered from less than optimal statistical techniques, including the use of obsolete reference years, price weightings, and so on. Revision studies are generally carried out, but documentation of the analysis of revisions is only systematically available for monetary data. Users reported to the ROSC team that macroeconomic statistics are "broadly satisfactory" in terms of serviceability (p. 7). Cross-dataset reconciliation is generally possible using publicly available information, but there are inconsistencies between national accounts data with other datasets. The identification of preliminary versus revised data is specified in published statistics, but revision dates and revision analyses are not publicized.

Accessibility of official data could stand some improvement as well, according to the ROSC. At present only the BCB provides advance-release calendars - a practice that the other statistical agencies could adopt. On the other hand, the ROSC found that all the agencies offer effective user assistance. Prior to subscription to the SDDS, Bolivia was advised to begin compiling quarterly data on all employment, unemployment, and wages, for publication within three months of the end of the relevant quarter. At present, quarterly compilation is only done for the public sector, and reporting lags are excessive. The producer price data, currently compiled quarterly, must be done monthly, with a one-month lag, maximum. Consolidated central government operations data must be compiled and disseminated. According to the ROSC, Bolivia should qualify for SDDS subscription soon.

The Principles

Comprehensive economic and financial data, disseminated on a timely basis.

NC

According to their respective websites, Bolivia is not yet a subscriber to the SDDS but has participated in the less rigorous GDDS since the year 2000. The 2007 IMF ROSC mentions that Bolivia intends to subscribe to the SDDS at some future time. According to Appendix 1 of the IMF's 2007 ROSC data module , Bolivia meets SDDS coverage, periodicity, and timeliness requirements in many, but not all, required and encouraged datasets. For national accounts data, it does not compile forward-looking indicators, and it fails to meet SDDS requirements for employment, unemployment, and wage data, as well as for producer price data. In the fiscal sector, it meets all requirements except for the coverage requirement in the area of central government operations data, because central government accounts data is not consolidated. All requirements are met for the financial and external sector data, as well as for population data.

Ready and equal access to official statistics.

NC

According to their respective websites, Bolivia is not yet a subscriber to the SDDS but has participated in the less rigorous GDDS since the year 2000. The 2007 IMF ROSC mentions that Bolivia intends to subscribe to the SDDS at some future time. A number of statistical publications are made available on the websites of Bolivia's three major data-generating agencies, the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank of Bolivia, and the National Statistics Institute (INE). However, these websites are in the Spanish language only. Notice of early government access to INE data is not broadly announced, although it is disclosed on the IMF's GDDS website. The BCB makes this information available online. Accessibility of official data could stand some improvement, according to the ROSC . At present only the BCB provides advance-release calendars - a practice that the other statistical agencies could adopt. In 2003, Bolivia passed Supreme Decree No. 27329, the provisions of which affirm Bolivia's commitment to achieving transparency and access to public information.

Official statistics must have the confidence of their users. Transparency of its practices and procedures is a key factor.

NC

According to their respective websites, Bolivia is not yet a subscriber to the SDDS but has participated in the less rigorous GDDS since the year 2000. The 2007 IMF ROSC mentions that Bolivia intends to subscribe to the SDDS at some future time. In 2003, Bolivia passed Supreme Decree No. 27329, the provisions of which affirm Bolivia's commitment to achieving transparency and access to public information. According to the ROSC, the BCB "maintains some informal contacts with data users, but there are no formal mechanisms to monitor the relevance of the statistics or to identify emerging data requirements" (p. 5). Users reported to the ROSC team that macroeconomic statistics are "broadly satisfactory" in terms of serviceability, and the ROSC found that all statistical agencies offer effective user assistance.

The law governing the INE requires the protection of individual data. However, there is no specific legal sanction for noncompliance. All statistical reporting agencies provide guidelines for staff and official conduct, and legal sanctions exist in the case of violations. The BCB's formal Code of Conduct specifically covers integrity, confidentiality, and professional independence. And new hires must sign a confidentiality agreement. The ROSC describes INE practice as involving the application of "strict technical principles and professional ethics in the compilation and dissemination of statistics, and promotes a culture of professionalism" (p. 5), and the report attributes a similar level of professionalism to the other three agencies. While the INE does not publish on its website the terms and conditions it employs to produce statistics, there are a variety of publications that contain this information and that can be made available to the public. Both the MoF and the BCB do publish their terms and conditions online.

A set of standards that deals with the coverage, periodicity and timeliness of data must also address the quality of statistics.

NC

According to their respective websites, Bolivia is not yet a subscriber to the SDDS but has participated in the less rigorous GDDS since the year 2000. The 2007 IMF ROSC mentions that Bolivia intends to subscribe to the SDDS at some future time. The ROSC found that only monetary statistics enjoy sufficiently rich and high quality source data that enables high accuracy and reliability, and consumer price data are "reasonably available" (p. 6), but for all other datasets the sources are inadequate. Surveys are not sufficiently inclusive, and censuses are not carried out regularly . Source data validation procedures are generally sound but need to be enhanced for national accounts and price index data. The ROSC noted that most datasets suffered from less than optimal statistical techniques, including the use of obsolete reference years, price weightings, and so on. Revision studies are generally carried out, but documentation of the analysis of revisions is only systematically available for monetary data. Cross-dataset reconciliation is generally possible using publicly available information, but there are inconsistencies between national accounts data with other datasets. The identification of preliminary versus revised data is specified in published statistics, but revision dates and revision analyses are not publicized.