Financial Market Data for International Financial Stability

The international financial crises that have been a feature of the midto-late 1990s, like others before, have given prominence to the need for good quality and timely economic and financial data. A view has emerged that better data provision allows investors to make better informed investment decisions, as well as highlighting potential problems at an early stage so reducing the likelihood of sudden shocks and hence dislocation of capital flows with a consequential impact on the real economy.1 In 1993, new international standards for the measurement of national accounts and the balance of payments were published, followed by the development of the IMF’s data dissemination standards in the mid-1990s. However, as the 1990s come to an end, the continued explosion of capital flows, the associated growth of new instruments, and the recent international financial crises creates a new challenge for those responsible for data provision both at the national and international level.