UK Statistics Failing on Multiple Fronts Pose New Policy Risk

-- Britain has a data problem that is raising fears of policy mis-steps at a critical juncture for the UK economy. The BOE has been attacked for its “shocking” data infrastructure, the UK spending watchdog refused to sign off on the latest public-sector financial statements and the Office for Budget Responsibility found an £18 billion error in its calculation of the chancellor’s new debt-reduction rule. The US has Britain’s LFS is so “misleading” it is “not fit to be used for critical decisions like setting rates or making fiscal projections,” Adam Corlett, principal economist at the Resolution Foundation think tank, said after the ONS warned its figures may not be usable until 2027. “It’s a big issue in terms of business planning as well as policymaking,” said Oxford Economics Chief UK Economist Andrew Goodwin. In April, former US Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke said the BOE’s data handling infrastructure was “seriously out of date” and “not adequately maintained.” The deficiencies he identified shocked Cambridge University Economics Professor Petra Geraats into asking at the BOE Watchers Conference in November whether there had been “negligence from a governance point of view.” Bernanke’s revelations were “shocking,” she said.