On 8 October 2021, the Financial Stability Board and the International Monetary Fund co-published their sixth progress report on the G20 Data Gaps Initiative.
Key messages in the progress report include:
- Significant progress has been achieved during phases 1 and 2 of the Data Gaps Initiative in closing identified policy-relevant data gaps.
- Although the initiative was extended by six months until the end of 2021, the pandemic continues to affect the DGI-2 work program for 2020-21 and is posing significant challenges for some recommendations and those economies where the respective recommendation targets were not yet achieved.
- Participating economies continue to take forward the agreed DGI-2 recommendations, building on the collaboration and peer pressure mechanism.
- Building on the collaboration and peer pressure mechanism pursued throughout the DGI process, participating economies and international organizations recognize the need for a new international cooperation initiative on data gaps after the conclusion of the DGI at the end of 2021. The new initiative will focus on priorities of policymakers and avoid duplication with other existing initiatives. Specifically, four main statistical and data priorities to be covered by a possible new DGI have been identified: (i) climate change; (ii) household distributional information; (iii) Fintech and financial inclusion data; and (iv) access to private sources of data and administrative data, and data sharing. A detailed work plan for the new initiative will be developed.