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Is all the WDI data based on calendar year or fiscal year reporting period?

← Data Compilation Methodology
The reporting period for national accounts data is designated as either calendar year basis (cy) or fiscal year basis (fy). Most economies report their national accounts and balance of payments using calendar years, but some use fiscal years. Data included in the World Development Indicators (WDI) database, fiscal year data are assigned to the calendar year that contains the larger share of the fiscal year. If a country's fiscal year ends before June 30, data are shown for the first year of the fiscal period; if the fiscal year ends on or after June 30, data are shown for the second year of the period.

For example, Australia reports data on June 30th. Thus, their data are shown in the second year of the period. Given these rules, our figure for Australia's 2007 GDP current US$ was computed by summing the 3rd and 4th quarter of 2006 and the 1st and 2nd quarter of 2007. The exchange rate we used is a conversion factor which is made up of the 3rd and 4th quarter 2006 exchange rates and 1st and 2nd quarter 2007 exchange rates from the IMF.

To see which other countries use fiscal year reporting, please review the WDI primary documentation notes.

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