Bolivia: Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC)—Data Module Response by the Authorities
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The Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC) Data Module provides an assessment of Bolivia’s macroeconomic statistics against the recommendations of the General Data Dissemination System (GDDS). The report reveals that the quality of Bolivia’s macroeconomic statistics has improved over recent years. The statistics have been broadly adequate for macroeconomic analysis and policy design and monitoring. The authorities have demonstrated a commitment to pursue plans and programs to further improve their statistics.

Abstract

The Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC) Data Module provides an assessment of Bolivia’s macroeconomic statistics against the recommendations of the General Data Dissemination System (GDDS). The report reveals that the quality of Bolivia’s macroeconomic statistics has improved over recent years. The statistics have been broadly adequate for macroeconomic analysis and policy design and monitoring. The authorities have demonstrated a commitment to pursue plans and programs to further improve their statistics.

I. Introduction

1. We appreciate the opportunity to provide comments on the ROSC data module. We collaborated closely with the data module ROSC mission and agree with the thrust of the mission's recommendations. Below are comments from the Central Bank of Bolivia (CBB), the Ministry of Finance (MOF), and the National Statistical Institute (NSI) on the five datasets assessed during the mission.

II. Response to the Missions Assessment and Recommendations

A. National Accounts Statistics

2. Section B in Part III of this document presents a detailed action plan to adopt the recommendations of the ROSC mission in the area of national accounts.

B. Price Statistics

3. Sections C and D in Part III of this document present a detailed action plan to adopt the recommendations of the ROSC mission in the area of price statistics.

C. Government Finance Statistics

4. The ROSC document was reviewed by the Fiscal Programming Unit (UPF) of the Ministry of Finance (MOF), which focused on the detailed assessment using the DQAF. Comments and responses to the mission’s recommendations are summarized below.

Indicator 0.1.1 1

Mission’s recommendation

Improve coordination between the two units of the MOF that share the responsibility of GFS compilation, to achieve comprehensive collection, compilation, and dissemination of GFS.

Comment

The UPF has as an institutional mission the design and follow-up of the fiscal program, providing the authorities with reliable and timely data for decision making. Additionally, the UPF provides the general public with fiscal statistics compiled on the basis of cash-flows of the agencies under its aegis. On the other hand, the Accountant General of the Republic is responsible for the production of the financial statements of the public sector, receiving the balance sheets of the public agencies three months after the end of the fiscal year. Additionally, we are in the process of coordinating between several units within the MOF and other agencies, with a view to implementing the GFSM 2001 and the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability methodology.

Indicator 0.3.1

Mission’s recommendation

Make more systematic efforts to identify new and emerging data requirements and undertake surveys to obtain feedback about the relevance and practical utility of fiscal data.

Comment

The UPF is in constant contact with users of GFS, which transmit—either verbally or in writing—to the UPF their requirements and comments. These comments are taken into account when producing information for the general public.

Indicator 1.2.2

Mission’s statement

No official agency outside of the MOF has access to data prior to publication. Procedures for authorizing dissemination of GFS, deemed to be internal, are made public only in a limited manner. The minister or vice-minister of the MOF authorizes the release of GFS.

Comment

The UPF disagrees with this statement. The process of compiling GFS finalizes with their submission to the Minister of Finance and their immediate dissemination to the general public.

Indicator 1.2.3

Mission’s recommendation

Clearly identify data sources and the entity in charge of data compilation in all statistical products.

Comment

This recommendation will be taken into account in the upcoming issues of the Dossier Estadístico and the Boletín de Recursos HIPC II, as well as on the MOF webpage.

Indicator 1.2.4

Mission’s recommendation

Provide advance notice of all methodological and other relevant changes that materially affect the GFS.

Comment

The revisions will be detailed in footnotes to the published tables in the upcoming issues of the Dossier Estadístico and the Boletín de Recursos HIPC II, as well as on the MOF webpage.

Indicator 2.2.1

Mission’s recommendation

Expand the scope of institutions and transactions in the GFS to include comprehensive and detailed data of the operations of some decentralized agencies and local governments, and make special efforts to compile debt data of local governments.

Comment

We want to stress that the current coverage encompasses the transactions of the financial accounts of all municipalities. Those beyond the coverage of the UPF are estimated on the basis of the monthly transactions of their financial accounts. We are also in the process of including cash flows of provincial municipalities, although their geographical location hinders this task. Furthermore, we process debt data of the largest municipalities and have created a Performance Program to capture data of local governments.

Indicator 2.3.1

Mission’s statement

Contrary to recommendations in the manuals, the GFS compiled by the UPF have the following shortcomings: (1) statistics on the consolidated central government are not prepared; and (2) statistics on the social security sector do not include detailed data of the Corporation of Military Social Insurance.

Comment

The Ministry of Finance, within the framework of harmonization of the GFS of the region, is considering adopting definitions consistent with GFS manuals.

Mission’s recommendation
  • Reclassify royalties as other revenue item; commissions for interest as goods and services item; tax refunds as a revenue item; social assistance benefits as transfers to households; repayments as an expense item and present a net item, lending minus repayments; and payments for pensions as compensation of employee item.

  • Reclassify as other capital revenue two categories wrongly classified as current revenue, “other capital revenue” and the part corresponding to capital revenue in “other revenues”.

  • Collect and compile disaggregated data for some items included in expenses, such as “universities” and “others”, to obtain an adequate economic classification.

  • Classify tax revenues, financing, and debt by instrument, holder and maturity following the recommendations of the GFS manuals.

Comment

We are evaluating to introduce changes in the data presentation, according to the mission’s recommendations.

Indicator 2.4.3

Mission’s recommendation

Include tax refunds in the taxes, netting from the corresponding tax, if possible; while lending minus repayment should be included as an expenditure category (when using the GFSM 1986 methodology).

Comment

We are evaluating to introduce changes in the data presentation, according to the mission’s recommendations.

Indicator 3.1.1

Mission’s statement

The main data sources for the first stage are diverse; they include administrative systems for monitoring the budget execution and accounting. These systems are: the SIGMA, the SINCON, and some integrated systems of public units. In addition to these systems, the UPF has developed a system to collect timely data that are not available through the systems previously mentioned. Among these systems, there are no interfaces to reconcile data and guarantee consistency. Also, since these systems are not integrated, a duplication of collection and compilation efforts has emerged.

Comment

The integrated systems SIGMA and SINCON are not used by all agencies of the nonfinancial public sector. Furthermore, these systems very often do not have updated information. When such contingencies occur, the UPF used the Monthly Flow Registry to process the cash flow—mainly in municipalities and some other agencies—as a versatile and timely system that allows to have available cash based data, which is reconciled with bank statements of each agency, and therefore is highly reliable.

Indicator 5.1.1

Mission’s statement

Although the disseminated GFS permit identification and comparison of major aggregates of flows, there is room for improvement. For example, data sources and units in charge of data production should be noted; titles of the tables should be harmonized and revised; texts with analysis of the data published could be included; several acronyms should be spelled out or a list of acronyms should be included at the beginning of the publications; and stock data, such as domestic and external debt by sector, should be included.

Comment

Our comment on indicator 1.2.3 already tackled the issue of data sources. With respect to other recommendations, they are being considered for the next issue of Dossier Estadístico, Vol. IX, the Boletín de Recursos HIPC II, and the MOF webpage.

Indicator 5.1.3

Mission’s recommendation

Post the preannounced calendar for dissemination of GFS on the MOF website.

Comment

The advance release calendar for the fiscal year 2007 has already been posted on the UPF website.

Indicator 5.3.1

Mission’s statement

Material to raise awareness on the use of statistics is available, but assistance to users is not monitored.

Comment

Assistance to users is provided, either personally or via electronic mail, and it is monitored and assessed by the relevant staff.

D. Monetary Statistics

5. The ROSC document was reviewed by the Monetary and Fiscal Sector Deputy Management Office (SSMF) of the Central Bank of Bolivia, which focused on the detailed assessment using the DQAF. Comments and responses to the mission’s recommendations are summarized below.

Indicator 0.2.1

Mission’s recommendation

Revise the internal CBB policy on access to the Internet and use of telephone for external calls.

Comment

Unlimited internet access has already been authorized to compilers of monetary statistics. The remainder of the logistical support is in the process of being implemented.

Indicator 0.3.1

Mission’s statement

The CBB does not have a policy of periodically consulting users of monetary statistic about their needs.

Comment

The CBB has posted on its website, and will include in its hardcopy publications, a form to request comments and suggestions on the statistics it publishes.

Indicator 1.2.2

Mission’s statement

The latest monetary data, together with other macroeconomic data, are provided regularly to the Macroeconomic Group, an economic policy analysis committee. Depending on the scheduled release calendar, the Macroeconomic Group may or may not have access to the statistics prior to its public dissemination. However, this earlier access does not interfere with the scheduled release of the data. On its website, the CBB acknowledges this possibility of selected access prior to release.

Comment

The data available to the Macroeconomic Group prior to its publication are tables for the Monetary and Financial Program, which are used for economic policy decision making. This Group does not discuss nor review the monetary and financial statistics to be published by the CBB.

This information is produced according to a methodology agreed in a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Ministry of Finance and the CBB. The basic information shows the performance compliance of certain monetary and fiscal variables (for instance, fiscal deficit, internal and external financing, net domestic credit to the nonfinancial public sector, net domestic credit, international reserves). These variables are subjected to some adjustments agreed to monitor the compliance of monetary and fiscal targets, and furthermore are presented to the Macroeconomic Group using a fixed exchange rate for the U.S. dollar, the SDR, and the Housing Promotion Unit (UFV); a methodology that differs from the one used when constructing the monetary tables disseminated to the public. The CBB Annual Memory and the bi-annual Monetary Policy Report contain some marginal references to these variables.

In summary, neither in the content of the information submitted to the Macroeconomic Group, nor in its spirit, one can say that there is a clear and direct relationship with the figures published by the CBB, or that these figures could be used to derive nonpublished data. We must also stress that the meetings of the Macroeconomic Group do not deal with the quality of the data provided by the CBB.

In this sense, there is no previous knowledge by the authorities of the content of upcoming publications of the CBB, nor any influence on them by the Macroeconomic Group, because the monetary and financial statistics disseminated on a weekly basis are not provided to the Macroeconomic Group. Furthermore, the data provided to the Macroeconomic Group is a small fraction of the information available on the CBB website and its hardcopy publications. Therefore, we dismiss the possibility that there is earlier governmental access to monetary and financial statistics, or any influence on them.

Indicator 1.2.4

Mission’s recommendation

Give advance notice to the users of the upcoming expansion of the coverage of the ODC survey, the compilation of an OFC survey, and any other major methodological revision.

Comment

Immediately, any change in methodology, source data, or statistical techniques will be previously informed on the CBB webpage.

Indicator 2.2.1

Mission’s recommendation

Expand the coverage of the ODC survey, to include the accounts of the SAFIs.

Comment

Action already taken to expand the coverage of the ODC survey. It is foreseen that the September 2007 issue of the monthly bulletin will include the accounts of the SAFIs in the ODC survey.

Mission’s recommendation

Start compiling a monthly OFC survey, with data from pension funds, insurance corporations, and the one state-owned financial corporation, Development Productive Bank. To automate the process, the Systems Management Office developed a computing routine to aggregate the data of the two pension funds.

Comment

The SSMF has already a program that permits the compilation of the pension funds data in the format requested by the mission, and the September 2007 issue of the monthly bulletin will include information on pension funds. For the accounts of insurance corporations, the Systems Management Office of the CBB developed a program to permit the data consolidation. However, the Superintendency of Pensions, Securities, and Insurances is facing staff shortages, which hamper the electronic transfer to the CBB of data from 2002 onwards.

Indicator 2.3.1

Mission’s statement

Accounts of the SAFIs are classified as Other Financial Corporations rather than as Other Depository Corporations.

Comment

On October 24, 2006, the CBB asked the Superintendency of Banks and Financial Entities to create sector A39 Investment Fund Management Societies, separating them from A38 Other Financial Corporations. This new classification was implemented starting with the report of January 2007. Regarding the inclusion of the SAFIs in the ODC sector, its implementation is taking place in two stages. The first one requires the manual uploading of the data for the years 2002 to 2006. For the second stage (year 2007 onwards), the module with the new chart of accounts has already been prepared and we are discussing with the Superintendency of Pensions, Securities, and Insurances the electronic transmission of data according to the new chart of accounts.

Mission’s statement

There is not a breakdown between other nonfinancial corporations and other resident sectors.

Comment

On October 24, 2006, the CBB asked the Superintendency of Banks and Financial Entities to split account A50 Private nonfinancial sector into A51 Other nonfinancial corporations and A52 Other resident sectors, classification that has been implemented starting with the reporting for January 2007.

Mission’s recommendation

In collaboration with the SBFE, undertake efforts to eliminate the detected mistakes in the sectorization of the accounts of ODCs.

Comment

On February 26, 2007, the SSMF provided the Superintendency of Banks and Financial Entities with a detailed report of all the misclassifications detected in the data reported by ODCs. The Superintendency took the corresponding actions. On April 18, 2007 a new review was undertaken with the data reported for March 2007. The whole entities show too much interest to report their information with better quality.

Indicator 3.2.1

Mission’s recommendation

Develop a routine that automatically flags significant changes in the balances of selected accounts, or balances that do not correspond with the expected values.

Comment

Under consideration. The routine could be generated by a database currently under construction.

Indicator 4.3.3

Mission’s statement

Studies and analyses of revisions are not made public.

Comment

The September 2007 issue of the monthly bulletin will include a methodological annex of all published tables. Such annex is being currently developed and will allow implementing this recommendation. Likewise, this recommendation will be fully adopted when the plans described in item 1.2.4 are implemented.

Indicator 5.1.4

Mission’s statement

Monetary data may be made available to the Macroeconomic Group prior to their public dissemination, but this early access does not interfere with the scheduled release calendar.

Comment

This statement is not pertinent. For the authorities' response, see item 1.2.2. Therefore, the rating of indicator 5.1 should be upgraded from LO to O.

E. Balance of Payments Statistics

6. The ROSC document was reviewed by the External Sector Deputy Management Office (SSE) of the Central Bank of Bolivia, which focused on the detailed assessment using the DQAF. Comments and responses to the mission’s recommendations are summarized below.

Indicator 0.1.1

Comment

The report should include a reference to Article 20 of the CBB law, which constitutes the legal framework backing the data requirements to the private sector for balance of payments statistics mentioned in indicator 0.1.4.

Indicator 0.3.1

Mission’s statement

Establish regular procedures to obtain user’s feedback on the relevance of BOP statistics and emerging data needs (preferably through users’ surveys).

Comment

The BCB has already established this procedures. For example, there exists a questionnaire on the subject in the CBB’s website.

Indicator 1.2.2

The Macroeconomic Group that meets periodically to monitor the macroeconomic and financial developments receives the latest available monetary and financial information that may or may not have been published on the CBB website. This practice may generate in some cases internal government access prior to their dissemination to the public, but with no interference with their pre-scheduled public dissemination. This practice is publicly identified in the CBB metadata posted on the CBB website.

Comment

Any reference to earlier government access to macroeconomic statistics should be deleted, because this is not the case for balance of payments.

Indicator 2.2.1

Mission’s recommendation

Assess the extent to which nonresident’s deposit could be identified from total bank deposits in SBFE data.

Comment

This recommendation should be implemented in coordination with the SSMF

Indicator 2.3.1

Mission’s recommendation

Align the classification of transactions in services and transfers, and the sectorization of institutional units with the BPM5 guidelines.

Comment

The alignment of the sectorization of institutional units with the BPM5 corresponds only to external debt transactions in the balance of payments and the international investment position.

Mission’s recommendation

Review the external debt relief data recording in line with the BPM5, including the recording of debt forgiveness in the capital account.

Comment

This recommendation is superfluous because the debt relief is recorded in the balance of payments as a capital transfer, with a corresponding contra-entry in the financial account. This can be verified in the following publications: (1) Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Report, January–December 2006, page 7; and (2) Monthly Bulletin, N° 145, January 2007, Table 24. Both publications are available on the CBB website and show on an aggregated basis the debt relief under the MDRI: World Bank (US$ 1,511.3 million) and IMF (US$ 232.5 million); and under the HIPC: Japan (US$ 63 million); for a total of US$ 1,806.8 million.

Mission’s recommendation

Align the classification and coverage of the reserves template to the IMF guidelines.

Comment

Some of the recommendations regarding the reserves template have been already implemented by the CBB during the data ROSC mission. Guidance on the recording of capital contributions to the FLAR in the reserves template was provided after the mission in a letter from the STA’s Balance of Payments and External Debt Division II to the CBB’s SEE on March 5, 2007.

Mission’s recommendation

Exclude the RAL Fund (US$ 489.9 million) from Section I. B Other foreign currency assets and from Section III 1.B Other contingent liabilities.

Comment

This issue was already solved during the stay of the mission. This can be verified in Table 30 (International Reserves and Foreign Currency Liquidity Template) of the monthly bulletin (N° 135, January 2007), posted on the CBB website.

Mission’s recommendation

Include all short-term foreign-currency deposits of the financial sector with the CBB as predetermined short-term net drains on foreign currency assets in Section II.1 Outflows.

Comment

The recommendation is currently not applicable. Short-term foreign currency deposits of the financial sector with the CBB constitute part of the legal reserve requirements.

Mission’s recommendation

Exclude from Section II.3 Other trade credit (+) the positive balances with ALADI’s Agreement of Reciprocal Payments and Credit to avoid double counting with Section I.A.5.

Comment

This issue was already solved during the stay of the mission. This can be verified in Table 30 (International Reserves and Foreign Currency Liquidity Template) of the monthly bulletin (N° 135, January 2007), posted on the CBB website.

Mission’s recommendation

When applicable, include the negative balances with ALADI’s Agreement of Reciprocal Payments and Credit as predetermined short-term net drains on foreign currency assets in Section II.3 Other trade credit (-)

Comment

This issue was already solved during the stay of the mission. This can be verified in Table 30 (International Reserves and Foreign Currency Liquidity Template) of the monthly bulletin (N° 135, January 2007), posted on the CBB website.

Mission’s recommendation

When applicable, include in Section IV. 1 b) [of the Reserves Template] short-term domestic-currency debt indexed to foreign exchange rates and short-term financial instruments denominated in foreign currency but settled in domestic currency.

Comment

The recommendation is currently not applicable. At present, there are no securities indexed to the U.S. dollar (value maintenance) in circulation. If in the future operations in this kind of instrument take place, they will be included in the Reserves Template.

Mission’s recommendation

The currency composition of official reserve assets disclosed in Section IV.2 a), according to those currencies in the SDR basket and those not in the SDR basket, should match the amounts reported in Section I.A.

Comment

This issue was already solved during the stay of the mission. This can be verified in Table 30 (International Reserves and Foreign Currency Liquidity Template) of the monthly bulletin (N° 135, January 2007), posted on the CBB website.

Mission’s recommendation

Official reserve assets in gold should be reclassified from assets in currency not in the SDR basket to assets in currencies in the SDR basket within Section IV.2 a).

Comment

This issue was already solved during the stay of the mission. This can be verified in Table 30 (International Reserves and Foreign Currency Liquidity Template) of the monthly bulletin (N° 135, January 2007), posted on the CBB website.

Indicator 3.1.3

Mission’s recommendation

Employ more rigorous procedures to ensure the timely receipt of respondents’ data.

Comment

This recommendation should refer only to service, remittances, and foreign private capital.

Indicator 3.3.1

Mission’s recommendation

Review statistical techniques to adjust data for missing observations.

Comment

This recommendation should refer only to service, remittances, and foreign private capital.

Indicator 4.2.3

Mission’s recommendation

Prepare and disseminate a table on quarterly reserve assets reconciliation between monetary and BOP statistics.

Comment

This recommendation should be done in coordination with SSMF.

III. Action Plan

7. Based on the ROSC’s recommendations, and in collaboration with the mission, we have designed an action plan to further increase the analytical usefulness of Bolivia’s statistics. This plan will be very useful to guide the future work in the national compiling agencies and also to guide the work of international organizations and donors in the statistics field. In particular, we count with the support of the IMF—among other international organizations and donor countries—to carry out the proposed actions.

8. A detailed action plan is presented in the attached tables, which include cross-cutting actions as well as measures specific to each data set. It should be noted that not all actions included in this plan have the same importance or priority, and that at times they are conditional upon the reassignment of resources, funding, training, or technical assistance.

A. Cross-cutting Actions

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B. National Accounts Statistics

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C. Consumer Price Index

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D. Producer Price Index

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E. Government Finance Statistics

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F. Monetary Statistics

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G. Balance of Payments Statistics

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1

The numbers refer to the relevant section in the document Bolivia: Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC)—Data Module.

2

Every three months, the CBB will send to the SBFE notes with the observations.

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