RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad announced Monday that Palestine has joined an IMF initiative to disseminate statistics to the public.

Palestine became a member of the Special Data Dissemination Standard, or SDDS, on April 19, becoming the fifth Arab state to join after Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Jordan.

SDDS is a standard by the International Monetary Fund to guide countries in the dissemination of national statistics to the public.

Palestine's membership, listed as the West Bank and Gaza, indicates the maturity of PA institutions, Fayyad said.

A total of 70 other countries are members of the SDDS.

Fayyad thanked the national committee for its work in achieving such an accomplishment.

The team which worked on the project was led by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics and assisted by the PA ministry of finance, the Palestinian Monetary Fund and the Palestinian Stock Exchange.