The modelling strategy of the Global Structural Macroeconometric Modelling Project is extraordinarily demanding in terms of data management of quarterly and annual data series, the main data sources for the project are from the IMF databases: International Financial Statistics (IFS) and from the Direction of Trade Statistics (DOTS), using solely quarterly data of the IFS and using both quarterly and annual data from DOTS the GVAR model is constructed, in some exceptional cases some missing periods of quarterly data are linearly interpolated from the IFS annual data series.
Both datasets are accessed using the Economic and Social Data Services ESDS International Data Service, the Below details on the IFS database show our sources of the data for the project and serves as a guideline to ESDS users on what could be found in the Database.
Using the ESDS website to access the IMF’s International Financial Statistics IFS, the following is a guide on how to use this system (for subscribers only), using ‘search all series’ and is particular into the quarterly series, using the search tab is obviously the easiest task but for a specific data series using the series code following the country’s code saves a lot of time and reduce the trouble of uncertainty, not inserting the country code would yield the whole list the specified variable series for ALL countries, before searching its important to clear all the pre-selected fields in the main menu
|
Variable |
Series code |
Description |
Availability[*] |
|
Exchange Rates & Currency Reserves |
.1..SZF |
International
Reserves in SDR |
|
|
..AC.ZF |
SDR
per National Currency |
|
|
|
..AD.ZF |
Gold
holdings |
|
|
|
..AE.ZF |
National
Currency/$ |
|
|
|
..AF.ZF |
National
Currency/$ |
|
|
|
..AG.ZF |
$/National
Currency (End
of period) |
|
|
|
..AH.ZF |
$/National
Currency |
|
|
|
Money |
34...ZF |
Money
(national currency) |
|
|
35...ZF |
Quasi-Money
(national currency) |
|
|
|
35L..ZF |
M2
(approx equal to Money added to Quasi money)
(in national currency) |
|
|
|
59MA.ZF |
M1
(national currency) |
|
|
|
59MACZF |
M1
Seasonally Adjusted (national
currency) |
Australia, Canada, France, Germany and US. |
|
|
59MB.ZF |
M2
(national currency) |
|
|
|
59MBCZF |
M2
Seasonally Adjusted |
Canada, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway and US. |
|
|
59MC.ZF |
M3
(national currency) |
|
|
|
59MCCZF |
M3
Seasonally Adjusted |
|
|
|
59MD.ZF |
M4
(national currency) |
Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Hungary, Mexico, Paraguay. Spain and UK |
|
|
59MDDZF |
M4
(foreign currency) |
For Mexico only |
|
|
59MDCZF |
M4
Seasonally Adjusted |
Australia and UK only. |
|
|
59ME.ZF |
M5
(national currency) |
Only for Paraguay |
|
|
Interest Rates |
60...ZF |
Discount |
|
|
60A..ZF |
Purchase
Agreements |
Armenia, EURO, France, Madagascar, Moldova, Netherlands, Romania, Sweden & Switzerland. |
|
|
60B..ZF |
Money
Market Rate |
|
|
|
60C..ZF |
Treasury
Bill Rate |
|
|
|
60F..ZF |
Discount
– premiums rate |
Limited availability |
|
|
60K..ZF |
Savings
rate |
|
|
|
60L..ZF |
Deposit
rate (%) |
|
|
|
61…ZF |
Gov
Bond yield |
|
|
|
62P..ZF |
Lending
rate. |
|
|
Price Indices
|
62...ZF |
Share
Price Index |
Limited availability |
|
62A..ZF |
Share
Price Index |
Limited availability |
|
|
63...ZF |
|
|
|
|
64...ZF |
Consumer
Price Index |
|
|
|
Petroleum |
66AA.ZF |
Crude
Petroleum Production |
|
|
66AB.ZF |
Refined
Petroleum Production |
|
|
|
Employment & Labour
Force |
67C..ZF |
Unemployment
(thousands) |
|
|
67R..Zf |
Unemployment
Rate (%) |
|
|
|
67D..ZF |
Labour
Force |
|
|
|
67E..ZF |
Employment
(thousands) |
|
|
|
International Trade |
70...ZF |
Exports
(National Currency) |
|
|
70..DZF |
Exports
$ |
|
|
|
70A..ZF |
Exports
of crude oil |
4 countries only |
|
|
71...ZF |
Imports
(National Currency) |
|
|
|
71..DZF |
Imports
$ |
|
|
|
Debt |
88...ZF |
Total
Debt |
|
|
Consumption |
91F..ZF |
Government
Consumption |
|
|
96f..ZF |
Private
Consumption |
|
|
|
Output |
99A..ZF |
Gross
National Income |
|
|
99B..ZF |
GDP
(national currency) |
|
|
|
99B.CZF |
GDP
(Seasonally Adjusted in NC) |
|
|
|
99B.PZF |
GDP
Volume (specified year) |
|
|
|
Population |
99Z…ZF |
Population (Total) |
|
[*] Specifically regarding availability of quarterly data, accuracy is not guaranteed; availability info is made up to my knowledge as one of the most frequent users of the system.