Government Withdraw Home Sales Data
News that the government has withdrawn data on home sales for the last three years because of inaccuracies has opened a 'can of worms' in investment markets. While the authorities would not confirm the exact nature of the problem with the home sales data it was serious enough to order a complete review of data for the last three years which will see new figures released in the future. But if the authorities got this figure wrong, what else has been incorrect?
The more obvious data which springs to mind is the jump in retail sales for July when every man and his dog had been expecting a marked fall. We also saw a similar situation in May when retail sales jumped dramatically just as the economic downturn was starting to bite. Is there a chance more data may be incorrect? Is the system flawed?
These are just some of the questions which spring to mind although the main one seems to revolve around the Bank of England MPC and the data they use to make economic decisions. If any of this data turns out to be flawed then we have a serious confidence issue which does not bode well for the future. Quite how the home sales data could have been incorrect for just the last 3 years suggests that the authorities had made changes to the way the figure was calculated, but will we ever really get to the truth?
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