The White House said Wednesday (Thursday AEDT) that key economic data for October may not be released because of the United States government shutdown.
While the shutdown is coming to an end, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that it could have long-lasting effects on the government’s data collection.
“The Democrats may have permanently damaged the Federal Statistical system with October CPI and jobs reports likely never being released,” Leavitt said.
“All of that economic data released will be permanently impaired, leaving our policymakers at the Fed, flying blind at a critical period.”
This comes as the Bureau of Labor Statistics was largely idle during the 40-plus-day shutdown, apart from temporarily recalling some staff to ensure the September consumer Index was released in time to set the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment for next year.
As a result, the agency was unable to collect price data and employment information for its closely watched releases.
Economists fear that doing so retroactively would lead to flawed data due to so-called recall bias and the difficulty people have recalling past events.
While the job numbers for September are yet to be released, the data was largely collected and compiled before the shutdown and is expected to come out within days of the government opening.
The release of the data has been at the forefront of Wall Street concerns as the shutdown dragged on for more than six weeks.
Leavitt also suggested that the shutdown could decrease fourth-quarter economic growth by up to 2 percentage points.
The Director of the National Economic Council said the shutdown would definitely have an impact on the quarter and could shave up to 1.5 percentage points from current-quarter GDP.
