This section describes the meaning of the thirteen-character IFS time series code, as an aid to locating data. IFS time series codes provide information about the time series that supplements the text descriptors. Positions 1-3 of the code refer to the country and/or area; positions 4-8 refer to the subject; position 9 refers to the time series revision version; position 10 refers to the data source; and positions 11-13 refer to the partner country (e.g. for Direction of Trade data) or the commodity market country/region, if relevant.
Illustration of an IFS time series code:
1. The time series code 23834..bzf... can be broken down by character position, as illustrated in the following table.
| Position | Description |
Code | Translation |
| 1-3 | Country Code | 238 | Costa Rica |
| 4-8 4 5 6-7 8 |
Subject Topic Subsection Classification Qualification |
3 4 .. b |
Money - seasonally adjusted monetary survey monetary liabilities (money) none seasonally adjusted |
| 9 | Version | z | first |
| 10 | Source | f | IFS |
| 11-13 | Partner country/ commodity market |
... | none |
Description of time codes used in IFS, by position
Positions 1-3: Country/Area Codes
The first three positions of an IFS time series identify the country or area to which the time series data relate. The term "country" does not in all cases refer to a territorial entity that is a sovereign state as understood by international law and practice; the term also covers some non-sovereign territorial entities for which statistical data are maintained and provided internationally on a separate and independent basis.
Examples of Area and Country Codes
The country code always consists of a three-digit number. For the most part, the first digit reflects a regional grouping, as shown below:
| 0 | world or all country aggregates |
| 1 | industrial countries |
| 2,3 | Western Hemisphere |
| 4 | Middle East |
| 5,8 | Asia |
| 6,7 | Africa |
| 9 | centrally managed or formerly centrally managed and other economies |
Information pertaining to an area provide aggregate data for countries that comprise that area. Area groupings may vary by source; users are encouraged to view the examples given below and to consult the hard copy publication for the listing of area membership.
Position 4: Institutional, topical or subject area
Examples of 5-digit (positions 4-8) Time Series Codes for the United States.Position 4 of the time series key identifies the institutional, topical, or subject area of this series, as indicated below. Note that for several subject areas, position 5 further identifies which subject.
| . (dot) | exchange rate, Fund position, or international liquidity (time series position 5 further identifies which subject) |
| 1 | monetary authorities |
| 2 | deposit money banks |
| 3 | monetary survey |
| 4 | other banking/non-bank financial institutions |
| 5 | banking survey/financial survey |
| 6 | interest, prices, production, or labor (time series position 5 further identifies which subject) |
| 7 | international transactions |
| 8 | government finance |
| 9 | national accounts or population |
Position 5: Subsection specification
Monetary Statistics
Under the broad subject of monetary statistics (i.e., beginning with a topic code of 1-5), the subsection code of the time series key can specify one of the following subsections:
| 0 | reserves |
| 1 | foreign assets |
| 2 | domestic credit |
| 3 | unclassified assets |
| 4 | monetary liabilities |
| 5 | quasi-monetary liabilities |
| 6 | non-monetary liabilities |
| 7 | capital and unclassified liabilities |
Interest, Prices, Production or Labor (subsection codes)
Under the topic Interest, Prices, Production or Labor (i.e., beginning with the topic code of 6), the subsection code can specify one of the following:
| 0 | interest rates |
| 1 | bond yields |
| 2 | share prices |
| 3 | wholesale prices |
| 4 | consumer prices |
| 5 | earnings |
| 6 | production |
| 7 | labor |
International Transactions (subsection codes)
Trade data are a subset of the international transactions (topic code 7), and use the following subsector codes:
| 0 | exports |
| 1 | imports |
| 2 | volume of exports |
| 3 | volume of imports |
| 4 | unit value of exports |
| 5 | unit value of imports |
| 6 | export prices |
Government Finance Statistics (subsection codes)
Under the topic of Government Finance Statistics (i.e., beginning with the topic code of 8), the subsections are defined:
| 0 | deficit/surplus or total financing |
| 1 | revenue or grants |
| 2 | expenditures |
| 3 | lending minus repayments |
| 4 | domestic financing |
| 5 | banking survey/financial survey |
| 8 | domestic debt, total debt |
| 9 | foreign debt |
Positions 6-7: Classification
The classification codes, when present, provide classification distinctions. For example, for production indicators alphabetic codes in the third and fourth positions may identify specific production statistics, such as AA-crude petroleum, or EY-manufacturing.
For labor market data, the following classification codes in position 6 are used:
| D | labor force |
| E | employment |
| C | unemployment |
| R | unemployment rate |
Position 8: Qualification
The qualification code provides information about special characteristics of the data. It may indicate a statistical procedure, an institutional identity, a level of government, or the currency of the data observation. This alphabetic code is printed in italics as the fifth position in the IFS hard copy publication. The list below summarizes these qualification codes:
| .(dot) | national currency (n.c.) data or unadjusted data |
| A | seasonal factors |
| B | seasonally adjusted by IMF |
| C | seasonally adjusted by reporting country |
| D | U.S. dollars |
| E | transactions in convertible currencies |
| F | U.S. dollars, seasonally adjusted |
| P | constant prices (unadjusted) |
| R | constant prices (seasonally adjusted by reporting country) |
| S | SDRs |
| T | for high inflation countries selected observations in a different magnitude |
| U | SDRs, seasonally adjusted |
| X | exchange rate index; percent change over same period of previous year |
| Y | price quotation or unit value in n.c. units |
| Z | price quotation or unit value in U.S. dollars |
These qualification codes are also used depending on the subject area as indicated below.
Deposit Money Banks and Non-bank Financial Institutions (qualification codes)
For deposit money banks, the qualification code provides institutional breakdowns. These codes may be found on individual country pages in the corresponding monthly printed publication where the nature of the institution is explained in the country notes.
For non-bank financial institutions, the code is used to distinguish types of institutions that are generally as follows:
| F | finance and securities companies |
| G, H, I, J | savings institutions |
| K, M, N, O | development institutions |
| L, S | insurance companies |
| X | trustee accounts |
Industrial Production
For industrial production, in seasonally adjusted series for 22 industrial countries, position 8 carries a qualification code I.
Government Finance Statistics
For government finance statistics, the qualification codes are used to distinguish various accounts in the central government or different levels of government. The qualification codes are:
| .(dot) | central government budgetary accounts |
| H | central government consolidated accounts |
| O | central government extra-budgetary accounts |
| 3 | central government social security funds |
| J | state or provincial governments |
| L | local governments |
Position 9: Version Code
A one-position alphabetic code used to identify the revisions of concept and content of a time series is identified by Z--the first (earliest) version. All IFS time series are the butt splice of any underlying revision versions, except for index number time series and some currency conversion factor (exchange rate) time series, which are ratio spliced. Butt splicing creates a continuous time series, unadjusted from the various versions, giving priority to the latest version. Series that have been spliced are marked with a footnote indicator at the point of splice.
Position 10: Source Code
A one-position alphabetic code generally used to indicate the source of the data is identified as F for IFS.