EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Statistics are essential for the government, businesses, and individuals for making all sorts of decisions, such as the amount of funds placed on infrastructure projects, the number of goods to order, or the choice of a curriculum. The Statistical Information System of Macao (SEM) was officially promulgated in 1984, with the Statistics and Census Service and the Issuing Institute (the predecessor of the Monetary Authority of Macau) as the official organizations for statistics compilation. Since the establishment of the SIEM, the compilation and dissemination of official statistics have undergone rapid development, both in terms of quantity and quality. On the international arena, the financial crises in Mexico and Asia that took place dunng the past decade have aroused global attention on the need for countries to disseminate reliable and timely data to the public. As the international organization for economic surveillance policies of member countries, the International Monetary Fund started working on the international standards for data dissemination in 1995. When evaluating the SIEM against the IMF standards, namely the General Data Dissemination System (GDDS) and the Data Quality Assessment Framework (DQAF), it can be concluded that the SIEM meets most of the prescribed requirements. However, public awareness on official statistics, particularly monetary and financial statistics, needs io be further strengthened. In addition, it is advisable for the two organizations of statistics compilation to foster their relationship with respondents and the community. The further utilization of the Internet as a channel of data dissemination and the development of data warehouses are highly necessary.