United Republic of Tanzania: Technical Assistance Report-Report on Data Quality Assessment for Public Sector Debt Statistics (September 23–27, 2024)

This report discusses the findings and recommendations of the 2024 assessment of the data quality of the public sector debt statistics (PSDS) of the United Republic of Tanzania against the IMF’s Data Quality Assessment Framework (DQAF) for PSDS. The assessment was undertaken as part of a project to strengthen the quality of public sector debt in select African countries, funded by the Government of Japan. In recent years, Tanzania has made significant progress in strengthening the compilation and dissemination of public sector debt statistics. The Debt Database Management Section of the Debt Management Division (DMD) in the Ministry of Finance (MOF) has been modernized by implementing the Commonwealth Secretariat web-based debt management system (CS Meridian) in the financial year (FY) 2022/23. The report notes strengths in the legal framework and institutional arrangements underpinning the compiled and reported PSDS and finds the disseminated statistics to be broadly reliable, transparent, and of good quality. Recommendations include expanding the sector coverage beyond the budgetary central government, improving the available metadata, adopting a transparent revision policy, and making the PSDS more widely available, including through the National Summary Data Page (NSDP) and joint IMF-World Bank Quarterly Public Sector Debt Statistics database (QPSD).