Uruguay has been a subscriber to the International Monetary Fund's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) since February 2004. In 2004, the IMF observed that important weaknesses in the statistical database existed, especially in the fiscal sector. Similarly, national account statistics were found to have a number of shortcomings, including the use of an outdated benchmark (year 1983), long publication lags, inadequate information on the informal economy, and incomplete quarterly accounts.
General Overview
The statistical database in Uruguay is generally adequate for the assessment and monitoring of macroeconomic policies, but important weaknesses exist, especially in the fiscal sector. A multisector mission of the IMF in 1999 developed an action plan for bringing Uruguay's data dissemination policies and practices in line with the IMF's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS), and on February 12, 2004, Uruguay subscribed to the SDSS. To improve the provision of fiscal data for program monitoring purposes, the government established a committee to bolster coordination between the MEF (Ministry of Economy and Finance), the BCU (Central Bank of Uruguay), BROU (Banco de la República Oriental del Uruguay) and BHU (Banco Hipotecario del Uruguay). (IMF 2004, p. 45 )
Three institutions are responsible for producing official data, namely: The Central Bank of Uruguay (BCU), the National Institute of Statistics (INE), and the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF). The MEF prepares public finance statistics: revenues, expenditures, and some financing items. The INE is responsible for compiling and disseminating data on consumer prices, labor market statistics, population and other demographic statistics, and for conducting household surveys, housing and population surveys, and economic censuses and surveys of businesses. The BCU is responsible for data on the monetary and financial sectors, external sector, and fiscal sector (financing data) as well as for national accounts and wholesale prices for domestic products. (IMF 2001, p. 6)
The Central Bank Law authorizes the Central Bank of Uruguay (BCU) to request information from private and public entities and to apply sanctions. However, the BCU has been reluctant to apply sanctions for noncompliance. (IMF 2001, p. 6)
The Principles
Comprehensive economic and financial data, disseminated on a timely basis.
Uruguay is taking flexibility options on General government or public sector operations, Central government operations and Central government operations data sets. (IMF SDDS website)
The provision of fiscal and public debt data still exceeds the two-month limit, mainly due to reporting difficulties from BROU (Banco de la República Oriental de Uruguay) and BHU (Banco Hipotecario del Uruguay). (IMF 2005, p. 22)
In the 2001 ROSC, the IMF reported that the BCU compiled a monthly balance sheet of the financial system that comprises the BCU, the BROU, the BHU, and the private financial banking system, which includes banks, finance houses, and saving and credit cooperatives. The BROU reported data to the Central Bank with longer delays than the private banks, which affects the compilation of timely money and banking statistics and below-the-line fiscal data. However, the use of preliminary balance sheets for the BROU, beginning with the data for June 2001, will make it possible to comply with the SDDS timeliness requirement for the analytical accounts of the banking sector. (IMF 2001, p. 12)
The Central Bank of Uruguay (BCU) compiles a monthly balance sheet, which includes the breakdown required by the SDDS, namely: reserve money, net domestic credit, and foreign assets and foreign liabilities. The BCU also compiles quarterly data for the balance of payments. The data are compiled consistently with the fifth edition of the International Monetary Fund's Balance of Payments Statistics Manual (BPM5) and are disseminated with a lag of 12 weeks. (IMF 2001, p. 12)
Data are disseminated on exports and imports of goods and services, net current transfers, net income receipts, portfolio investment, direct investment, other investment (net), and the change in international reserves. Publication of these data in the BCU web page is to begin with IIP data corresponding to 2000. New sources of data have been developed to improve the coverage of the IPP, the survey of direct investment conducted in 2000, which refers to 1999 data, covers stock data on direct investment and private sector debt, which will be included in the IIP. (IMF 2001, p. 12)
The statistical database in Uruguay is generally adequate for the assessment and monitoring of macroeconomic policies, but important weaknesses exist, especially in the fiscal sector. A multisector mission of November 10-24, 1999 developed an action plan for bringing Uruguay's data dissemination policies and practices into line with the Fund's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS), and on February 12, 2004, Uruguay subscribed to the SDSS. To improve the provision of fiscal data for program monitoring purposes, the government recently established a committee to bolster coordination between the MEF (Ministry of Economy and Finance), the BCU (Central Bank of Uruguay), BROU (Banco de la República Oriental del Uruguay) and BHU (Banco Hipotecario del Uruguay). (IMF 2004, p. 45 )
National account statistics have a number of shortcomings, including the use of an outdated benchmark year 1983, limited coverage of the enterprise survey, long publication lags, inadequate information on the informal economy, and incomplete quarterly accounts. The BCU compiles and disseminates annual GDP estimates in current and constant prices by production and expenditure approach, as well as quarterly constant price GDP estimates by production and expenditure approach. Gross national income, gross disposable income and gross savings are also available annually. However there is no compilation of annually chained volume measures and quarterly estimates of GDP at current prices. (IMF 2004, p. 45)
Both the consumer and wholesale price indices are reported on a regular and timely basis for publication in the IFS. The consumer price index has a base period of March 1997 =100, and the wholesale price index's base has been updated to 2001. The coverage of the CPI is limited to the capital city. (IMF 2004, p. 45)
Balance of payments statements are compiled and published on a quarterly basis. Data are compiled following the recommendations of the fifth edition of the Balance of Payments Manual (BPM5). The authorities have made significant progress in implementing the mission recommendations in order to improve the coverage and quality of the balance of payments estimates. The directory of direct investment enterprises have been updated and measures have been introduced to improve the survey on inward investment; quarterly surveys have been introduced in the case of services, and other activities not currently covered; the coverage of reserve assets has been revised to exclude certain assets that are not available to finance balance of payments needs. Uruguay compiles and reports annual data on balance of payments and the international investment position (IIP) for publication in the IFS and the Balance of Payments Statistics Yearbook. The new surveys would also allow for improved coverage of the private sector in the IIP. (IMF 2004, p. 46)
Official data on the central administration, the state enterprises and the social security system are complete and current, but there are problems with the timeliness of the data on local governments. (IMF 2004, p. 45)
In October 2003, Uruguay disseminated the international reserves and foreign currency liquidity data template on the Central Bank's website for the first time. (IMF 2004, p. 46)
National account statistics have a number of shortcomings, including long publication lags. (IMF 2004, p. 45)
An advance release calendar that provides a quarter-ahead precise release date is published on the Central Bank of Uruguay's web site. (IMF SDDS website)
Data is released simultaneously to all users through the news releases and also subsequently disseminated via the BCU's website. (IMF SDDS website)
A broad range of information is disseminated by the General Accounting Office (CGN) and the Central Bank of Uruguay (BCU). Information on the methodology and sources used in the preparation of fiscal data are not available to the general public. (IMF 2001)
Data on the operations of the Central Government, Social Security and of the main nonfinancial enterprises are disseminated on the Central Bank of Uruguay website and in hard copy publications. (IMF 2001, p. 22)
Official statistics must have the confidence of their users. Transparency of its practices and procedures is a key factor.
The legal framework in Uruguay has been established by Statistical Law No. 16. 616 of October 1994. The Law established the National Statistical System (SEN), consisting of the Institute of National Statistics (INE) and the agencies that produce statistics. The Law grants technical independence to INE as well as the role of coordinating and supervising the SEN and elaborating the National Statistical Plan. In practice, owing to a lack of resources, the Institute of National Statistics (INE) has not been able to coordinate all areas of data compilation. INE has not yet formally assumed its role as coordinator of the National Statistical System. Furthermore, the public entities do not always provide the required information on time, and the penalties prescribed by law are not enforced. (IMF 2001, p. 7)
All statistics compiled and published by the BCU are governed by Law 16616 (National Statistical System) and Law 166969 (BCU Organic Charter). These laws prescribe the statistical secrecy requirements pursuant to which it is impermissible to disclose statistics that allow one to identify data pertaining to particular individuals or institutions. (IMF SDDS website)
Across different data categories, the government has access anything from a few hours to a few days before publication. The introduction of methodological changes is announced to the public at the time the data is published. There is no disclosure information for Identification of internal government access to data before release for exchange rate (IMF SDDS website)
Although no specific regulations exist for preparing annual data on general government operations, they are prepared as the basis for presenting the annual balance (according to the provisions of Articles 214 and 215 of the Constitution of the Republic, Article 110 of the Amended Law on Accounting and Financial Administration and Law No. 16616 of 10/20/1994 governing the structure and functioning of the National Statistical System). (IMF SDDS website)
No-one outside the Ministry of Economy and Finance has access to general government operations data before release and there is no routine ministerial commentary on the occasion of statistical releases. Changes in methodology are not announced in advance; instead they are indicated in footnotes at the time of publication on the central bank website. (IMF SDDS website)
Methodological changes (regarding financial sector data), when they occur, are explained in notes to the headings concerned. (IMF SDDS website)
The compilation procedures followed by General Accounting Office (CGN) and the Central Bank of Uruguay (BCU) for the compilation of revenues and expenditures adhere closely to the guidelines of the Government Finance Statistics (GFS) Manual. Financing and debt data do not follow the GFS methodology. (IMF 2001, p. 7)
Publicly disseminated central government budgetary data show the budget balance calculated according to the Government Finance Statistics (GFS) Manual definitions. Revenues are disaggregated between tax and nontax revenues, by type of tax. Expenditures are disaggregated into salaries and wages, purchases of goods and services, subsidies and other transfers, social security contributions, and public debt interest payments. (IMF 2001, p. 22)
A set of standards that deals with the coverage, periodicity and timeliness of data must also address the quality of statistics.
Summary methodologies are only provided for balance of payments and international investment position data. (IMF SDDS website)
Methodology and sources are published on the Central Bank's website and The Statical Bulletin (Boletín Estadístico) allows for a number of statistical cross-checks, (IMF SDDS website)
The Special Data Dissemination Standard prescribes disclosure of the methodology used to compile the data and the dissemination of other data series that could provide cross-checks on the reasonableness of the data. The policy of the Institute of National Statistics (INE) is to disseminate methodologies and data sources at the time of publication of the statistics and to provide timely information on any changes in the methodology. However, in 2001, the IMF in its assessment stated that the dissemination of documentation on methodologies by other institutions was irregular. The Central Bank of Uruguay (BCU) has published the methodology for the compilation of the national accounts, and efforts were underway to improve on the quality and availability of methodological information of other institutions responsible for producing official statistics. (IMF 2001, p. 7)
International Monetary Fund, "Uruguay: Fifth Review Under the Stand-By Arrangement and Request for Modification of the Arrangement and Waiver of Nonobservance and Applicability of Performance Criteria," Country Report No.04/327, Washington, D.C.:IMF, October 2004. Available from International Monetary Fund website. Accessed on July 12, 2006. (IMF 2004)
International Monetary Fund, "Uruguay: Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes - Data Module," Country Report No. 01/183, Washington, D.C.: IMF, October 16, 2001. Available from International Monetary Fund website. Accessed on July 12, 2006. (IMF 2001)
International Monetary Fund ,"Uruguay: Second Review under the Stand-By Arrangement, Requests for Modification, Waiver of Nonobservance and Applicability of Performance Criteria, and Extension of Repurchase Expectations in the Credit Tranches," Country Report No. 06/123, Washington, D.C.:IMF, March 2006. Available from International Monetary Fund website. Accessed on July 12, 2006. (IMF 2006)
International Monetary Fund ,""Uruguay: First Review Under the Stand-By Arrangement and Request for Modification of Performance Criteria - Staff Report; Staff Statement; Press Release; and Statement by the Executive Director for Uruguay", Country Report No. 05/431, Washington, D.C.:IMF, December 2005. Available from International Monetary Fund website. Accessed on July 12, 2006. (IMF 2005)
Uruguay