According to the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) website, Brazil first became a subscriber in 2001, at which time it successfully met all SDDS specifications. The website shows that Brazil presently meets or exceeds SDDS requirements for timeliness, coverage, and periodicity of data and for the issuance of advance release calendars. In addition, a 2007 IMF Annual Observance report also attests to Brazil's compliance with the SDDS' requirements on timeliness, periodicity and coverage of data in 2007. The report also noted that in 2007, Brazil punctually met the SDDS' advance release calendar requirements for most months. Similarly, according to information provided on the SDDS website, most of the data disseminated and published by the Brazilian authorities meet SDDS conditions for access, integrity, and quality.

General Overview

According to the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) website, Brazil first became a subscriber to the SDDS on March 14, 2001. At the time of subscription, Brazil successfully met all SDDS requirements. The IMF's 2007 Annual Observance report, available on the SDDS website, notes that in 2007, Brazil met or exceeded timeliness, coverage, and periodicity requirements for most datasets, taking timeliness flexibility options for two sets: general government or government sector operations and analytical accounts of the banking sector. The Central Bank of Brazil (BCB) publishes online advance release calendars for most datasets and was generally punctual about data release according to such calendars. In addition, Brazil provided access to methodological and source information and data reconciliation sufficient to reassure users that the data was of appropriate quality. As of November 2008, Brazil has not been the subject of an IMF Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes, data module, and there has been no public release of the annual Article IV Consultation Reports in recent years, so there is no public access to the Statistical Issues appendix generally included in those reports. According to Oxford Analytica's 2006 reports on monetary and fiscal transparency, Brazil's data enjoys a reputation for reliability, and Brazil pursues an active outreach communications policy with the public. This commitment is codified in the provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Law of 2000, which particularly requires the wide disclosure of fiscal information through the publication of key fiscal documents. The BCB website shows that most information is available in both English and Portuguese.

The Principles

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

FC

According to the IMF's SDDS website, Brazil met all coverage requirements in 2007, availing itself of no "as relevant" options. It disseminated all elements of both the reserves and external debt templates. Brazil also met or exceeded all periodicity requirements. The SDDS 2007 Annual Observance report notes that the datasets for which Brazil exceeded requirements are employment, unemployment, and wage/earnings data, central government debt, balance of payments data, and the international investment position data. For both the reserves template and external debt, Brazil met all periodicity requirements. As to timeliness, Brazil did take the flexibility option for both its analytical accounts of the banking, and for general government or public sector operations data. It met or exceeded timeliness requirements for all other datasets.

Ready and equal access to official statistics.

FC

Information on the IMF's SDDS website indicates that the country provides advance release calendars for all required data. According to the IMF SDDS's 2007 Annual Observance report, Brazil had some difficulties with regard to meeting SDDS requirements for advance release calendars. Monitoring of several datasets - official reserves, reserve template, international investment position, and external debt - was not possible due to the lack of an expected release date in the advance release calendar. For the official reserves and reserve template, this problem occurred in November and December of 2007. For the international investment position, it occurred in the second quarter. For external debt data, the problem arose in the fourth quarter. There were problems for Brazil in meeting its punctuality requirements, as well, for a number of datasets. Short delays were experienced for labor market, general government or public sector operations, and merchandise trade. Occasional short delays were experienced for balance of payments and external debt data. Occasional long delays were the problem for the analytical accounts data of both the banking sector and the central bank. Long delays were experienced in the area of central government operations, central government debt, and official reserve assets. Brazil made all SDDS required datasets available on the IMF's SDDS bulletin board or else provided hyperlinks to the data. Simultaneous data release is the rule. The SDDS website specifically mentions that, for the labor market and price indices, data is released to the media at the start of a press conference in which the data are announced. In other cases, access to data, although simultaneous, requires the use of a specific downloadable program.

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

CP

Brazil successfully fulfilled SDDS requirements for the certification of its data for every quarter of the year 2007, according to the SDDS Annual Observance report for that year. The SDDS website discloses that for most datasets, the terms and conditions for release of data are stipulated in law, but specifically notes that there is no legislation covering the compilation and dissemination of producer price index data. Generally speaking, there is no prior internal government access, nor is ministerial commentary included with the data. Where either does occur, it is clearly identified. The possible exception is population data, for which no information on these two factors is offered. Confidentiality provisions are stipulated in various laws for most datasets, but there is no information on confidentiality for either merchandise trade or producer price index data. Provisional data is identified as such, and revision dates are identified ahead of time. Methodological changes are made public, but not always in advance. According to Oxford Analytica's 2006 reports on monetary and fiscal transparency, Brazil's data enjoys a reputation for reliability, and Brazil pursues an active outreach communications policy with the public. This commitment is codified in the provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Law of 2000, which particularly requires the wide disclosure of fiscal information through the publication of key fiscal documents.

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

FC

The 2007 Annual Observance report notes that Brazil provided access to methodological and source information and data reconciliation sufficient to reassure users that the data was of appropriate quality. As of yet, Brazil has not been the subject of an IMF Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes, data module, and there has been no public release of the annual Article IV Consultation Reports in recent years, so there is no public access to the Statistical Issues appendix generally included in those reports. The SDDS website discloses that Brazil provides summary methodologies for all relevant datasets, and detailed methodologies are made available to the public online and in a variety of publications by such statistics-producing agencies as the BCB and the IBGE. Information on the SDDS website also shows that dissemination of component detail, reconciliation with related data and statistical frameworks that support statistical cross-checks and provide assurances of reasonableness is provided for all relevant data released by the Brazilian authorities