Considering the importance of timely and high-quality data on borrowing and lending operations particularly to LICs, the Quarterly External Debt Statistics (QEDS) database has been extended to a selected number of countries that participate in the IMF's General Data Dissemination System (GDDS) in February 2008. The participation of countries in the GDDS/QEDS database is voluntary. Currently, forty-four GDDS countries have agreed to participate in this database. Â The GDDS/QEDS database extension focuses on the dissemination of public and publicly-guaranteed external debt position data broken down by maturity as the essential item for participation in the QEDS, but encourages the dissemination of other data in line with the GDDS, including the external debt-service payment schedule, creditor sector information, and the external debt position data broken by type of instrument. | Â Gross External Debt Position ($ million)Â Â Â |