MNI BRIEF: UK's ONS To Refocus On Rolling 3-Month GDP Data

The Office for National Statistics will present its short-term GDP data with a three-month focus from September, pushing the monthly growth reading further into the release

“From today we are changing our presentation of GDP to lead with changes across three-month periods," ONS Director of Economic Statistics Liz McKeown said Friday. 

"When this series was first published in 2018, there was always a focus on the 3-month numbers, but we switched to a monthly focus in 2020 with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic – followed by significant events such as the war in Ukraine – to give policy makers and commentators the earliest read on how those events affected monthly output," an ONS official told MNI. "As part of our ongoing efforts to continue improving how we communicate GDP we have revisited the original analysis that underpinned our initial decisions on presentation of the monthly data and listened to the views of users.  As a result, from today, we will be reverting to leading on the three-month on three-month picture in our Monthly GDP bulletin and associated commentary," the spokesperson added.

Officials stressed that the monthly data will still be published in the same format as currently.