ONS: the bean counters, spill the beans, GDP figures delayed

The Office of National Statistics announced that first-quarter gross-domestic-product data, due to be announced later today, has now been delayed by almost two weeks owing to "potential errors." Quality assurance by ONS revealed potential errors in some of the detailed figures in the National Accounts data set," the ONS said in a statement. "To allow time to ensure the statistics fully meet National Statistics standards, ONS has decided reluctantly to postpone publication until Monday 12 July."

"It is important to ensure the national accounts are right, rather than disseminate statistics that might be subject to question over their quality. We are really sorry that we have had to do this and apologise for the inconvenience," ONS Director General, Stephen Penneck said. "We will learn from this to prevent it happening again."

Other statistics that have been affected by the potential errors include the balance-of-payments data, which were postponed until July 12th.

First-quarter business-investment data, however, will be published today as planned, the ONS said.

Had GDP data been published as originally planned, it would have been available to the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee at next week's policy meeting. With the hawks beginning to emerge from hibernation (one voted for an interest rate increase last time) it is likely that interest rates will remain on hold until GDP figures are available.

Author: Chris Slay