UAE Ministry of Finance announces its compliance to IMF’s Government Finance Statistics Manual 2014

ABU DHABI, 19th May, 2015 (WAM) -- The Ministry of Finance, MoF, has announced that it now fully complies with the International Monetary Fund’s, IMF, 2014 Government Finance Statistics Manual. The move is a result of the work plan adopted by the Financial Policy Coordination Council and following negotiations with financial experts and specialists in federal and local governments within the UAE. The council’s work plan pushes to adopt the latest international standards for financial data collection and promotes the principle of transparency, both of which are already pursued by MoF. The 2014 Government Finance Statistics Manual is of importance for the classification of operations at the level of local and federal governments - whether income, expenses, assets and liabilities’ transactions or government debt operations. The manual also covers all the changes in government transactions and other economic flows in harmony with the national accounts system and macro-economic statistics such as the balance of payments, monetary and financial statistics. Obaid bin Humaid Al Tayer, Minister of State for Financial Affairs, said, "The Ministry has developed several mechanisms for the preparation and collection of government financial statistics data since 2012. The Emirates Gate of the Government Finance Statistics, GFS, reports has been launched to collect and consolidate financial data and provide an electronic review of the data in various sectors at both the local and federal government levels. This is successfully done by providing a safe and effective environment so that the Ministry has access to accurate data, while ensuring the independence of regulations and accounting principles exercised by the federal government and local governments in the UAE." The Ministry has decided to fully implement the third version of the GFS Manual as a response to the UAE Cabinet’s decision on financial data collection and as per the decision to form the Financial Policy Coordination Council. Complying with the manual will allow the Ministry to prepare and process the government financial statistics. The Ministry has been issuing annual government finance statistics since 2009, and constantly improves the statistical reporting systems with the latest international standards and methodologies through its quarterly reports which have been available since 2012. The first edition of the GFS Manual was published in 1986, followed by the second version in 2001 and the third version in 2014, in which the IMF has expressed its keenness to coordinate and negotiate with the Government Finance Statistics Advisory Committee, government financial experts from member countries and international and regional organisation, including OECD, the United Nations and the World Bank. – Emirates News Agency, WAM – http://www.wam.ae/en/news/economics/1395280746326.html