Concern over early release of GDP data

By Phil Boeyen, ShareChat Business News Editor

Thursday 28th March 2002

Statistics New Zealand has apologised after the latest GDP statistics were inadvertently released to 16 financial and economic organisations half an hour before their embargo.

The government body says the organisations subscribe to a more detailed analysis of the data, which is normally sent to them after the lifting of the embargo at 10:45am.

However the release was accidentally sent out at 10:10 am.

"As soon as Statistics New Zealand was aware of the early disclosure, the GDP information was immediately released to all users. This occurred at 10:30am," says deputy government statistician, Ian Ewing.

"Statistics New Zealand has identified the cause and taken steps to avoid its recurrence."

HSBC says it expects an inquiry into the incident and "at least one head to roll at Statistics New Zealand as a result".

"Some traded on it, and no doubt made money from their lucky break. No doubt the usually friendly SNZ statisticians will be a little less forthcoming and controls on the release of data more tightly controlled in future," the bank says.

The GDP data show New Zealand's economy grew by 0.6% in the three months ended December, a figure that was less than half HSBC's strong expectation of 1.4% growth.

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