Christine Lagarde, Managing Director, IMF “…Finally, let me turn to another very important aspect of the IMF’s statistical work—data publication. We very much recognize the importance of data as a public good. In this context, we are upgrading our data platforms and improving the way we distribute data and statistics to our membership throughout the world. Think of the One African Data Hub that the IMF has recently launched in collaboration with the African Development Bank. This is a “cloud-based” data reporting tool that makes it less onerous for reporters to provide economic data, and much easier for users to share data. Much of our data is already freely available. This is especially true of the data that supports our main forecasts for the global economy in the World Economic Outlook. And I have an important announcement to make—starting January 1, 2015 we will provide all our online data free-of-charge to everyone. This will help all those who draw on our data make better use of this vital statistical resource—from budget numbers to balance of payments data, debt statistics to critical global indicators. The IMF will continue to be a vital source of public information that is needed to underpin sound policy decisions.”