The Statistics Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) publishes the International Financial Statistics (IFS) database and makes the data available to subscribers via CD-ROM. The electronic database is keyed closely with the printed issues of IFS and is updated on a monthly basis.  However, it contains historical data presented with a greater degree of precision than in the printed issues. The IFS contains approximately 32,000 time series covering more than 200 countries and includes all series appearing on the IFS Country Pages; exchange rate series for all Fund member countries, plus Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles; major Fund accounts series; and most other world, area, and country series from the IFS World Tables.

You can check out the CD-ROM (go to the the IFS CD-ROM record in Catalyst) that contains the database from the Library. The CD-ROM provides access to time series data from 1948 (for annual data) until the current publication month (there is typically a several month delay in releasing current statistics).

IFS is a standard source of international statistics on all aspects of international and domestic finance. These data provide users with time series which summarize every country's balance of payments with collateral data on the payment's principal components (trade and reserves), and data on the principal cause and effect elements (monetary expansion and contraction, government surpluses and deficits, production, prices and interest rates). It includes, for most countries of the world, current data needed in the analysis of problems of international payments and of inflation and deflation, such as exchange rate, international liquidity, banking, interest rates, prices, production, transactions, government accounts and national accounts data.. 

The product incorporates a Windows-based browser interface, as well as the flat file of the database in scientific notation. Thus the product is designed to meet the needs of two sets of subscribers -- those who prefer to access the database through an interactive interface and those who prefer to access or process the full contents of the database directly.

The user interface is available in three languages—English, French, and Spanish. The language is chosen from the Language Option box on the Options Tab.

The Country, World, and Commodity Prices Tables, as presented in the monthly printed copy of IFS, are available as selection options. The Economic Concept View provides a cross-country view of the concepts in the IFS by individual or groups of countries.

Capabilities of the Browser

The Browser includes capabilities for the following:

• browsing the directory tree,
• drilling down through the structure of the database,
• viewing the metadata associated with a time series,
• selecting either individual time series or groupings of time series within a table presentation,
• retrieving the selected data and metadata within a spreadsheet environment,
• saving and loading a query of selected time series for retrieval,
• and alternatively providing the user interface in English, French, and Spanish.

The user interface is a 32-bit application, requiring a 32-bit operating system (e.g., Windows 95, Windows 98, or NT 4.0) on the client microcomputer. It only requires 5 MB of disk space during installation and a CD-ROM drive. The CD-ROM must be loaded in order to access the IFS database.

Like many other economic time series data sets, you build your data extract by selecting indicators, countries, frequency and retrieval period.

• Identify the countries and time series that you wish to extract.
• Select the frequency and time period for retrieval of these series.
• Retrieve the time series data.
• Modify your output and save your extracted file.

Output Table View

The output table, based on the browser interface selections and options, is displayed using a spreadsheet product called "Formula One" designed by Tidestone Technologies, Inc. The metadata items precede the time series observations and are based on the defaults plus any additional metadata fields specified from the Options Tab. Formula One is very similar to Microsoft Excel 97 in appearance but has much more limited capabilities. Simple operations can be performed on the spreadsheet, i.e., summation, inserting and deleting rows and columns, cell formatting, copying and pasting cells, and saving the Formula One spreadsheet as an Excel workbook or a tab delimited file. [Note: when performing data movement operations, the display of cell footnotes is discontinued. Another data retrieval must be performed to re-activate the display of footnotes.] For certain topical areas, such as balance of payments and government finance statistics, the table frames (e.g., country pages) include the full list of possible concepts for the topic. This does not mean that all concepts listed in the table exist for every country. When a table is retrieved, there may be rows for which only the time series code and table descriptor exist; this means that the time series does not exist for the country selected.

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IFS Database Views

The Country Tables View of the International Financial Statistics (IFS) provides access to time series for a particular country through a collection of tables that correspond to the country pages in the monthly IFS publication. These time series correspond to the country pages in the monthly publication. Often, the relationship among individual series can be inferred from the table; for example, indentation is typically used to indicate that a group of series are components of a summary series. Not all tables exist for all countries and generally the contents of any particular table differs from country to country. This view supports the retrieval in the spreadsheet of either the entire table or selected series from the table. For tables in which mid-headers have been defined (typically indicating the magnitude or other important metadata for a group of series), these are retrieved within the browser and, if the entire table is retrieved, also in the spreadsheet.

The World Tables entry is a representation of roughly two dozen of the World and Area Tables that appear in the front of the monthly IFS publication.

There are two tables associated with the Commodity Prices. The first table represents data that are the market prices reported on the country pages for important commodities traded internationally, in units of quantity frequently used in the respective commodity markets, expressed in U.S. dollars. The second table represents the same data expressed as indices.

The Economic Concept View provides a high-level summary of the data contained in IFS. This view allows the retrieval of similar concepts across a number of countries, to the extent that they exist. Due to differences in the way countries define and compile statistics, not all concepts are fully comparable across all countries. For this reason, the Economic Concept View typically lists a number of different codes or definitions at the individual series level that fall within a particular concept grouping. For each of these codes or definitions, a count of the number countries for which the series exists is displayed to the right of the descriptor in the concept selection box.

To discover which definitions or codes exist for which countries, click on the Availability button, either before or after making country and concept selections. Multiple concept groupings may be selected using Ctrl-Click or Shift-Click, which will cause the union of series contained within the each of the selected concept groupings to appear within the selection box.

Within the Economic Concept View, click on the Availability button to find out which specific time series concepts exist for which countries. If the Availability button is clicked while no selections have been made in either the country selection box or the concept selection box, then the entire availability matrix will be displayed, with all countries for which any of the concepts exist appearing in the first column and the time series concept codes appearing in the first row. An "x" at an intersection of a country row and concept column indicates that the series exists. If one or more countries or one or more concepts are selected (highlighted in the country or concept selection boxes) then the availability of only the selected countries and/or codes will be displayed in the availability matrix, making it easier to narrow in on the countries/concepts of interest. While the Availability matrix is displayed, click on a concept code that heads a column to "bubble-up" to the top of the country list those countries for which the series concept exists. Particularly for concepts that are only defined for a small number of countries, this makes it easier to isolate the applicable countries without the need to scroll through a long list. While the availability matrix is displayed, it is possible to select the countries for which series are defined by selecting one or more country names in the first column of the matrix and clicking on the Add button. It is not possible to select series concepts -- all concepts that exist for the selected countries will be selected and added to the Series to Retrieval box.

The IFS directory tree is browsed using the familiar Microsoft Windows expanding tree model at the interface's Browse Tab. Initially, only the first level of the directory hierarchy is displayed. Each item at this level is represented with a file folder. Any item within this level can be further expanded by double clicking, which will cause the next level of the tree for this item to be displayed beneath it, and so on, for each level in the tree. A plus sign (+) next to a tree entry indicates that it can be expanded to the next level. A minus sign (-) next to a tree entry indicates that the tree has already been expanded; double clicking on an entry with a minus sign (-) will cause that entry and all subsequent subordinate levels of that entry to be collapsed. The lowest level groupings of time series in the tree are represented with a database icon.

The database icon signifies either a cross-country grouping of series or a grouping in a standard presentation that may be selected, and combined with series from other sources. Clicking on such an entry will cause a selection box or boxes to the upper right of the tree display to be filled with information about this group of time series, from which individual time series or groups of series may be selected. The icon changes color to indicate which item in the tree has been selected.

The presentation of the IFS directory tree can be limited to specific countries or specific sector topics by setting constraints on the Options Tab. Options are set by clicking on the Options Tab, selecting one or more of the countries listed in the Country Constraint box and/or one or more sectors in the Sector Constraint box, and then clicking on the Set Constraint button. This will cause the current constraints to appear in the box directly below the Country Constraint box. If the constraints do not fit within the visible portion of the box, then a horizontal scroll bar will appear at the bottom of the box to enable viewing of the constraints. If constraints have been set, then the label of the Browse Tab will change to "Browse - with Constraints" as a reminder when browsing the database directory, that only a subset of the directory is displayed. All constraints may be removed by clicking on the Clear Constraints button on the Option Tab. This will return the label of the "Browse - with Constraints" Tab to "Browse" its default setting. Setting Constraints can be a useful way of narrowing in on the data that is desired for one or more countries and/or sectors [see also Selecting and Creating Country Groups, below].

Searching the IFS Database Using Time Series Codes

Use the interface's Search Tab to Search the IFS database using time series codes (see the following section on time series naming conventions).  You can enter desired search strings, including wildcards in time series indicator ("key") fields according to Naming Conventions for IFS Time Series, or select the desired country, subject, and/or partner country from the drop-down lists.

Once you have entered your desired parameters, click on the Search button to obtain a list of time series matching your wildcard specifications. Select the desired series within the list and click on the Add button to add them to the Series to Retrieve area on the Browse Tab.

Naming Conventions for IFS Time Series

The naming conventions used for the approximately 32,000 time series in the IFS are outlined in Naming Conventions for IFS Time Series.  That document describes the meaning of the thirteen-character IFS time series code, and can can assist you in the location of data.  IFS time series codes provide information about the time series that supplements the text descriptors. In brief, the time series code, CCCTTTTTVSPPP, is constructed as follows:

• CCC - Three-character country/area code (always numeric)
• TTTTT - Five-character subject/topic code (usually 2 numeric followed by 3 alphabetic characters)
• V - Single-character version code (always numeric)
• S - Single-character publication code (always numeric)
• PPP - Three character partner country code (usually numeric, occasionally alphabetic)

Note also that as a matter of convention, the period (i.e., the punctuation mark ".") is used on the CD-ROM as a position holder to indicate a blank in the time series code (e.g., "001.7XRDZF900", "111...SBZF...", or "738.4..DZF...").

As described above, there are four choices in the Browse Tab directory tree for selecting the type of table or concept data for retrieval in the spreadsheet. The Country Tables, World Tables, and Commodity Prices Views provide standard presentation tables in the format recognized in the published volumes of the IFS. Individual time series can also be retrieved from these views. The Economic Concept View provides a cross-country view of the concepts in the IFS. Individual or groups of countries data may be chosen from this view.

Since the IFS database covers multiple countries, two boxes will appear in the upper right area of the browser window, one with a list of countries (and/or aggregates) and the other with a list of economic concepts. Multiple selections may be made from the economic concepts box by pressing the Ctrl key while clicking on items. An entire block of items may be selected by clicking on the first item in the desired blocked and then by pressing the Shift key while clicking on the last item in the block. Predefined or personal groups of countries may be selected by right clicking within the country selection box and selecting Show Country Groups [see also Selecting and Creating Country Groups, below ].

Retrieving Individual Series

Once the desired economic concepts and/or countries have been highlighted in the upper right selection areas, the individual series may be selected by clicking on the Add button. This will cause the selected series and associated metadata to be added to the Series to Retrieve box in the lower right portion of the screen. These series may be combined with series from another desired entry in the tree directory, by making selections and pressing the Add button in the same way as for the initial selection. Once all the desired series have been selected and placed in the Series to Retrieve Box, any unwanted series deleted, and the period setting for the retrieval adjusted , all the series in the Series to Retrieve box may be transferred to the spreadsheet by clicking on the Retrieve button. This will create a table in the spreadsheet in accordance with the options that are set on the Options Tab, including requested metadata fields and data values for all periods for which data is found in the underlying database. An "n.a." will appear for all observations where the series exists in the database, but not for the requested date. If a series does not exist at all within the underlying database, then a blank row will be retrieved.

Retrieving an Entire Table

For the Country Table, World Table, and Commodity Prices Views, the Retrieve Table button is shown in black (indicating it is available). Clicking on this button will cause an entire table to be retrieved into the spreadsheet as a formatted table, which can be edited and saved. For certain topical areas, such as balance of payments and government finance statistics, the table frames (e.g., country pages) include the full list of possible concepts for the topic. This does not mean that all concepts listed in the table exist for every country. When a table is retrieved, there may be rows for which only the time series code and table descriptor exist; this means that the time series does not exist for the country selected.

Deleting Series

To delete an individual series from the Series to Retrieve box, highlight the unwanted series and press the delete key. To delete a group of series, press the Ctrl key while clicking on items, then press the delete key. To delete a continuous block of series, click on the first item in the block, press the Shift key while clicking on the last item in the block, then press the delete key. To delete all series in the Series to Retrieve box, click on the Clear All button in the Series to Retrieve group.


Changing the Retrieval Period

To change the frequency or period of data observations that are to be retrieved, click on the Retrieval Period setting area in the upper left corner of the Browser tab. The dialog box that appears contains fields for single or multiple frequency settings, frequency, start period and year, and end period and year.

Note that by default, the frequency and retrieval period are set to Annual(A), from 1989 to 1998.

To select a retrieval period containing dates of more than one frequency, click on the Multiple Frequency setting. The retrieval period dialog will expand to include additional boxes for specifying the order of the dates and to display the period setting for each frequency. For each frequency of dates to be included in the retrieval period, select the desired frequency, start and end period and years as above and click on the Add button. The Freq. Order setting determines whether dates will be arrayed from Low to High frequency (e.g., annual, quarterly, and monthly) or High to Low (e.g., monthly, quarterly, and annual). By default, dates are arranged by frequency, starting with the lowest frequency, e.g. annual.

If the number of columns (date columns plus metadata columns) requested for a retrieval exceeds the 256-column limit in the spreadsheet, the first 256 columns will be placed in the first sheet, with the remaining columns placed in one or more other sheets, as necessary. All metadata columns will be repeated in each sheet. Transposed Output Orientation are handled in a similar manner, when more than 256 series are requested.

Note that the frequency and period settings determine the date column headers in the output table, but do not necessarily have any relation to the actual observations that are contained in the database. To see for which frequencies a series exists prior to retrieval, consult the Avail Freq. field in the Series to Retrieve box. Within each frequency, to see for which dates a series exists, consult the begin and end date metadata fields by scrolling to the far right in the Series to Retrieve box.

Wherever multiple countries may be selected (i.e., in the country selection box within the Economic Concept View, on the Browse Tab, or in the country constraints box on the Options Tab), rather than selecting the countries individually, an entire group of countries can be selected in one step by selecting a country group. To display the list of pre-defined and personal country groups available, right click within the country selection box and click on Show Country Groups. This will cause the Country Group dialog to appear. Individual countries, country aggregates and country groups are listed in the box on the left of this dialog. Within this list, icons preceding the name are used to distinguish between individual countries (displayed without an icon), country aggregates (displayed a sigma icon) and country groups (displayed with a globe icon). The source column indicates the IFS source database in which the group is defined. User-defined groups are indicated with "Personal" in the source column.

To select a country, aggregate or group, click on the element in the list and click on the Add button, or simply double click on the desired element in the list. This will cause the country, aggregate, or (in the case of a country group) all countries comprising the group, to be added to the box to the right. Additional countries, aggregates or groups can then be added in the same way by selecting additional items from the left list box. Once the list in the box to the right contains the desired list of countries, click on OK to close the country group dialog and cause the selected countries to be highlighted in the original country selection box.

To save the list of countries in the box to the right in a personal country group for subsequent use, click on the Save As button. At the prompt, type the name to be assign to this country group (or select a previously assigned name to overwrite an existing group) and click on OK. From this point on, the new personal group created will be displayed in the left list box, along with the other items. To delete a personal group, simply click on the personal group in the left list box and press the Delete key. You will be prompted before the personal group is actually deleted.

To see the list of countries comprising a group, click on the desired country group in the left list box and then click on the Show Members button just below this box. The list of countries will be displayed in another box. Click on the Print button to print this list, or on OK to return to the country group dialog.

To control which list of countries, aggregates, and/or groups are displayed in the left box, select an item from the drop-down list at the top right of the country group dialog. While "All Country Groups and Countries" is the default, other choices include: "Public Country Groups," "Personal Country Groups," and "All Countries."

Metadata in Time Series

Each time series on the CD-ROM is composed of a descriptor record (containing metadata--control codes, operation codes, and descriptive information--about the time series) and numerous data records (also containing a number of metadata items that describe some aspect of the series).  Thus, the metadata are contained in separate fields mapped to fields within the IFS database. These fields, which may be viewed within the browser or transferred to the spreadsheet, are described in the Metadata Table.  For more detailed information, consult the appropriate section of documentation located in the "Print_Me" directory on the IFS CD-ROM.

In the following screenshots you have selected the desired time series by using the Add button.  In this example you have moved the six selected series to the Series to Retrieve box on the Browse Tab.

Simple operations can be performed on the spreadsheet (summation, insertion, deletion, etc). You can then save the spreadsheet as a Microsoft Excel workbook or a tab-delimited ASCII file. Note that when you retrieve your data that there may be rows for which only the time series code and the descriptor exist. This happens because the time series is nonexistent for the country you have selected.

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Retrieval Options