Economic statistics and other data required in international analyses are often limited in scope, quality and quantity. The basic facts required for analyses have to be reconstructed and carefully evaluated from the limited data released by socialist countries. Low quality and poor availability of commercial data limits trade and external financing because it raises both costs and risks.
[Former socialist countries] In the late 1980s, Albania offered the least information of practical usefulness. Romania had a better record, although a great deal of basic statistical information was unavailable. The former German DR had also tended to reduce substantially its economic information and statistical detail. Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria were in an intermediate position, whereas Hungary, Yugoslavia and Poland published the most comprehensive and best documented sets of economic statistics in the region.