Latest news with #OfficeForStatisticsRegulation
Zawya
a day ago
- Business
- Zawya
UK regulator gives thumbs down to household wealth statistics
Britain's statistics regulator ruled on Friday that official data on how rich British households are can no longer be treated as reliable, in another blow to the Office for National Statistics. The suspension of accredited status for the data by the Office for Statistics Regulation comes as the ONS is under investigation by the government over long-running problems with labour market data and follows a significant error in April's inflation data and the suspension of producer price figures. "Declining response rates and a lack of investment have significantly impacted the quality of the survey data, which measures the financial wellbeing of households across Great Britain," the regulator said. The most recent version of the wealth data, published in January, stated that the median British household had wealth of 293,700 pounds ($397,552), with the top 10% of households being worth at least 1.2 million pounds and the bottom 10% under 16,500 pounds. The regulator said the survey, which began in 2006, had provided "crucial economic data on assets, savings, debt and retirement planning that informs state pension levels, academic research, and both monetary and fiscal policy development." The regulator said it had given the ONS instructions on how to improve the data and expected a progress report in September. Declining response rates lie at the heart of the problems with the ONS' Labour Force Survey - used to calculate the unemployment rate and inactivity in the labour force, key data points for the government and the Bank of England. The BoE and the regulator have said the fall in responses to the often lengthy ONS surveys appeared sharper than in other countries which collect similar data. ($1 = 0.7388 pounds) (Reporting by David Milliken; editing by William James)
Reuters
a day ago
- Business
- Reuters
UK regulator gives thumbs down to household wealth statistics
LONDON, June 13 (Reuters) - Britain's statistics regulator ruled on Friday that official data on how rich British households are can no longer be treated as reliable, in another blow to the Office for National Statistics. The suspension of accredited status for the data by the Office for Statistics Regulation comes as the ONS is under investigation by the government over long-running problems with labour market data and follows a significant error in April's inflation data and the suspension of producer price figures. "Declining response rates and a lack of investment have significantly impacted the quality of the survey data, which measures the financial wellbeing of households across Great Britain," the regulator said. The most recent version of the wealth data, published in January, stated that the median British household had wealth of 293,700 pounds ($397,552), with the top 10% of households being worth at least 1.2 million pounds and the bottom 10% under 16,500 pounds. The regulator said the survey, which began in 2006, had provided "crucial economic data on assets, savings, debt and retirement planning that informs state pension levels, academic research, and both monetary and fiscal policy development." The regulator said it had given the ONS instructions on how to improve the data and expected a progress report in September. Declining response rates lie at the heart of the problems with the ONS' Labour Force Survey - used to calculate the unemployment rate and inactivity in the labour force, key data points for the government and the Bank of England. The BoE and the regulator have said the fall in responses to the often lengthy ONS surveys appeared sharper than in other countries which collect similar data. ($1 = 0.7388 pounds)
Reuters
23-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
UK removes official accreditation from past producer price data
LONDON, May 23 (Reuters) - Britain's statistics authorities have temporarily removed official status on Friday from producer price data published from November 2020 onwards, following the discovery of calculation errors. Britain's Office for National Statistics suspended the publication of new producer price data in March after finding an error in how 'chain-linking' methods had been coded into its data production systems. The Office for Statistics Regulation said on Friday it had agreed to a request from the ONS to remove the "accredited official status" from the older data, pending potential revisions. The changes affect the producer price indices including the export price index, import price index and services producer price indices. Measures of consumer price inflation are unaffected.
