Revisions/Errata

Revisions - full text here later

Errata page see here

Extracts from the DECDG official revisions policy.

1.            Reason of Revision: In which cases do we revise data?

  1.1.              Data Change from preliminary to final data

The FIN team issues external debt data three times a year: first time -preliminary data release for the World Bank’s Country Management Units’ (CMU) review, second time - early release for online database, third time - an official release for publishing.  To draw the line among these three events, we only consider third release as subject to revisions as defined by the policy.  In the other two cases, online database users and CMUs are made aware of the official and final version of the GDF.  Customarily, CMU  at  the World Bank revises the preliminary data and if any comments occur , sends us back that additional information.  If we do not hear from CMUs by the cut-off date, the data is cleared on a no-objection basis.  We verify the data comments and incorporate them into the early online release where acceptable.  When information appears online during the preliminary release, GDF online users may send us their comments and the team further investigates the data.  If we  obtain valid information supporting the comments we received, the adjustments are implemented and appear in the final published release of the GDF.  

1.2.              Source data change 

Fin team source data change occurs very infrequently.  Since each of the reporting country’s Ministry of Finance, or less often the Central Bank, send their debt data to us under the Operational Provisions 14.10, the data source remains mostly the same. 

The  source data change may take place under the following  scenarios:

1. A non-reporting country decides to report. Ex. Nigeria has not reported to the DRS for the past ten years. This year, it is  in the process of compiling new factual numbers and promises to report to us soon. This  means that the country’s estimated database, currently in the DRS, will be replaced by the soon to be reported numbers.

2. Areporting country shifts from paper-based to electronic reporting. 

3.  A country adopts a new electronic database (COMSEC or UNCTAD standard) hosting  its external debt data, and may decide to send us several years worth of historical data at once  as it appears in the country’s  newly established database.

Ex.  Kenya has been regularly sending us reports, nevertheless, the poor quality of those reports prevented us from using their data, therefore GDF has demonstrated estimates.   After a successful mission to the country in 2004, FIN team staff produced better quality factual data for Kenya.  A mission to Zimbabwe on the same year demonstrated similar results for quality improvement of the country reported data. 

1.3.              Methodology change

1.4                   Mistakes/errors correction  

Sometimes the countries provide inconsistent reports, for example, high interest rates in loan principle repayments or lump sum payments versus equal payments..  In that case, debt specialists work with the countries and/or use alternative data sources to produce better quality data.  Before the release, the team runs massive quality data checks and estimate

procedures and clearances to eliminate errors.  If mistakes do surface after the final release, the online database may get revised, and a note on the web is issued to notify the GDF users of the changes.

2.          Time for Revision: How often/When do we revise data?

FIN Team may revise historical data for certain countries any time better quality information arrives from the reporting countries as well as from the alternative sources.  Regular revisions, including historical data, are due between March 31 –and end September. After the debt specialists complete data entry, analysis and quality checks, data is made available for:

2.2.1.        Preliminary data release: CMUs at the World Bank give feedback on the provisional data (mid October – end November)

2.2.2.       Early release (early January): subject to pre-publication revisions 

2.2.3.       Official release: the data is made available to the public via publication and the web

3.         Methodology of Revision: How do we revise data?

The DRS subscribing countries directly report their external debt data to the Financial Data Team. For this reason, the methodology of presenting data has maintained its form for many years and is not expected to undergo any changes in the near future.  International organizations (ADB, ADF, etc.) lending to the reporting countries cooperate in supplying us the information on multilateral lending.  Debt data usually undergoes revisions in the process of collecting the data from the countries.

 

Revisions occur when the reporting country fails to adhere to the World Bank external debt reporting standards, when the CMUs recommend revisions on the provisional data, or if the Board Meeting incites revisions after the official release. 

 

Other data published by the FIN team consists of bonds, short-term debt, grant numbers from OECD, macro data from DECDG, and non-debt data from DECPG. Macro data may get revised following the WDI schedule.  OECD and DECPG numbers arrive late in the process and their revision policy, especially DECPG’s, effect our overall output.  Each year DECPG comes up with a new topic for the GDF volume I.   Revisions to debt must be carried out  on the loan level, even if the corrections are requested on the aggregate level.

4.       Documentation on Revision: Rules of documentation on revised data 

Major historical revisions to the country data after the official publication release  are recorded by the debt specialists and are made available via the web.  Major errors found and corrected after published GDF may be corrected in GDF’s current online version and a notice about the change will appear on the website here.