Washington, DC – April 28, 2026: The United Kingdom (UK) has successfully completed the transitions plans required under the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) Plus—the highest tier of the IMF’s Data Standards Initiatives. As part of this achievement, the UK now publishes three additional SDDS Plus data categories:
- Sectoral Balance Sheets
- Other Financial Corporations Survey
- Debt Securities.
These data, along with their accompanying metadata, are now available on the IMF’s Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board.
Bert Kroese, Chief Statistician and Data Officer and Director of the IMF’s Statistics Department, welcomed the milestone. “I congratulate the UK for publishing additional financial data sets under the SDDS Plus. The UK’s continued support for the IMF’s data dissemination standards underscores its strong commitment to data transparency and sets a leading example, particularly given its role as a global financial center”. Mr. Kroese added. “I hope this achievement will encourage more countries to make the transition to the SDDS Plus.”
The IMF’s Data Standards Initiatives, established in the mid-1990s, aim to strengthen data transparency as a global public good and support the development of robust statistical systems. The financial crises of the mid and late 1990s underscored the importance of timely and reliable data, prompting the creation of data dissemination standards. Alongside the SDDS Plus, the Data Standards Initiatives include the SDDS and the Enhanced General Data Dissemination System (e-GDDS).
Further information is available in the IMF Factsheet on Data Standards Initiatives, and detailed data can be accessed on the Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board at https://dsbb.imf.org.
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