Advanced Course on Monetary and Financial Statistics

The course was held from February 12 to 16, 2024 at the CEMLA facilities under the auspices of the Statistics Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The main objective of the course was to describe the role of institutions called Other Financial Corporations (OFC) in said sector and its repercussions on the compilation of monetary and financial statistics data.

The course introduced participants to the fundamentals of compiling monetary statistics, with a focus on OFC, and provided an overview of monetary and financial statistics. The course material was based on the 2016 Monetary and Financial Statistics Manual and Compilation Guide (EMFMCG).

The event began with a synthesis of the basic blocks of monetary and financial statistics, continuing with the compilation of financial flows and an analysis of the OFC sector, mainly investment funds, other financial intermediaries, financial auxiliaries, lenders of money, insurance companies, pension funds and other financial agents.

The core part of the course emphasized the characteristics of various OFCs (insurance companies, pension funds, non-monetary market investment funds, etc.), their typical balance sheet structure and their role in the financial sector. The course also addressed aspects such as the interrelation of financial flows and stocks between the sectors of the national economy and their interactions with the rest of the world; as well as review the balance sheet approach in the economic vulnerability analysis.

In the final part of the course, some topics on monetary aggregates, liquidity and credit were discussed, ending up with some emerging topics such as the general treatment of the
Fin Tech, electronic money, crypto assets and other assets in monetary and financial statistics.

The course consisted of lectures and case studies to familiarize participants with the practical aspects of compiling monetary statistics for OFCs and the basic principles underlying the compilation of financial or flow of funds statistics.

There were 33 participants from 14 countries in attendance, in addition to the IMF lecturers.