GDP: Getting the best insight each month

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GDP: Getting the best insight each month

Monthly GDP, first introduced in 2018, is a closely followed statistic, showing changes in the size of the UK economy around 40 days after the end of a month. However, it has been questioned whether focusing on such short-term movements risks placing too much weight on a relatively noisy signal about the state of the economy. Liz McKeown sets out how, to help address this, we are changing our presentation of GDP to lead with changes across three-month periods. 

How suicide statistics are changing

Categories: Health, Office for National Statistics, ONS, Population
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A change in the standard of proof for how suicides are recorded that occurred in 2018 and increasing delays in the time taken for suicides to be registered have created challenges for ONS in communicating our suicide statistics. In this blog, David Mais, Head of Mortality Statistics, explores how these developments are changing our releases.  

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Correcting the record on retail sales, improving quality across economic statistics

Categories: ONS
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Under new senior leadership the ONS is urgently focusing its resources on core economic statistics as part of a wider strategic recovery plan. In this post, incoming Director General for economic social and environmental statistics James Benford says the recent postponement and correction of the retail sales figures underlines the need for the Office to prioritise and put more resources behind work to improve economic statistics and to bring more transparency on how these plans are progressing. 

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