World Economic Outlook, IMF

Summary

The IMFWEO (International Monetary Fund World Economic Outlook) Report is a survey conducted by the IMF staff that is published twice a year both in report and database format. The historical data and projections are based on the information gathered by the IMF country desk officers in the context of their missions to IMF member countries and through their ongoing analysis of the evolving situation in each country. Historical data are updated on a bi-annual basis, typically in April and September/October, as more information becomes available. IMF staff estimates serve as proxies for historical series when complete information is unavailable. As a result, WEO data can differ from other sources with official data, including the IMF’s International Financial Statistics.

Tables In IFs

The Data Team uses this dataset for a number of series, including GDPGrowthRate and GDPGrowthRateIMFWEO2011. Most recently the tables GovtGenExp%GDPFM and GovtGenRev%GDPFM were updated in November 2024.

Variable	Definition	UsedInPreprocessor	UsedInPreprocessorFileName	Code in Source
GDPGrowthRate	GDP growth Rates from IMF's WEO data history and forecast	0
GDPGrowthRateIMFWEO2011	Annual percentage change in GDP, historic and forecast, IMF WEO 2017	0
GovtGenGDebt%GDPFM	General government gross debt % of GDP	0		GGXWDG_NGDP
GovtGenNDebt%GDPFM	Net debt (% of GDP)	0		GGXWDN_NGDP
GovtGenExp%GDPFM	General government total expenditure % of GDP	1	ECONOMY	GGX_NGDP
GovtGenRev%GDPFM	General government revenue %  of GDP	1	ECONOMY	GGR_G01_GDP_PT

Data Pulling Instructions

Step 1: To pull WEO data, first navigate to the WEO Databases page

IMFWEO Home Page

Step 2: Scroll down and click the Database with the month and year desired (ex. October 2016)

IMFWEO Database Selection Screen

You will be navigated to this page:

Report Main Page

Step 3: Scroll down to the heading titled Download WEO Data and click By Countries for country-level data

Report Data Type Selection

You will be navigated to this page:

Country Group Selection

Step 4: Scroll down and click All Countries

Country Group Selection

You will be navigated to this page:

Country Selection Page

Step 5: Scroll down to select countries. You can either pre-select all countries in the IFs Country Concordance or click Select All and remove non-IFs countries later, then click Continue

Country Selection Page

You will be navigated to this page:

Subject Selection Page

Step 6: Scroll down to view available subjects and select the subject in the units desired (ex. Gross domestic product, constant prices in percent change)

Subject Selection Page

Once a subject is selected, the page will look like this:

Subject Selection Page

Click Continue and you will be navigated to this page:

Data Range Selection Page

Step 7: Use the dropdowns to select the desired data range (ex. 1980-2022) and adjust any advanced options as needed (ex. if ISO Country Codes will be used for Concordance)

Data Range & Advanced Options Selection Page

After you've selected your data range and adjusted advanced options, click Prepare Report and you will be navigated to this page:

Report Download Page

Step 8: Click Download Report to begin downloading the data, which will download in an .xls format

Data Notes