The ONS has published updated and indicative estimates of GDP, which show that the economy was larger than we previously thought in 2020 and 2021, though our estimate for the UK’s monthly and quarterly economic trends is broadly unchanged. Craig McLaren explains what’s led to this brighter picture.
Read more on Improving our estimate of businesses’ outgoings during the COVID-19 pandemic
Global issues, such as climate change, population growth and inflation to name a few, are best understood with the benefit of good global statistics. So, to that end, the ONS works in partnership with a number of countries worldwide with the ultimate aim of raising the world’s statistical capabilities.
In the latest episode of Statistically Speaking, podcast host Miles Fletcher chats to the head of the Ghanaian Statistical Service, Professor Samuel Annim; Emily Poskett, Head of International Development at the ONS; and Tim Harris of the ONS Data Science Campus’s international development team, about what international partnerships are achieving.
Read more on International Development: Growing a Global Statistical System
For the first time the ONS has published new data on UK Direct Debits. This new, fast and anonymised data source provides insight on consumer payments to most of the UK’s largest companies. Dragos Cozma describes how the ONS has developed this new data source with our partners at Vocalink and Pay.UK and what it tells us about the UK economy.
Read more on Direct Debits data reveal fresh economic insights
Our consumer inflation statistics are closely watched, not only because they tell us how price rises are affecting people, but also because they are a crucial piece of information, used by the Bank of England when setting Interest rates. Chris Jenkins talks about the complex adjustments we make to ensure the index shows only real, underlying changes in prices.
Read more on Keeping it consistent – how we quality adjust CPI
Since we introduced the country and regional public sector finances data in 2017, further opportunities have emerged to use alternative data sources to make these statistics more timely. Moreover, data sources and production techniques can help increase the granularity of geographical breakdowns. In this post we look at some improvements we’re working on.
Read more on Down your way: working towards more localised data on public sector spending
