At the end of September, the Central Statistics Office (CSB) conducted a benchmark revision of gross domestic product (GDP) data (like most European Union (EU) countries), as a result, Latvia‘s GDP increased by 1.8% in 2022 at comparable prices (previously 3%) and last year – by 1.7% (previously a 0.3% decrease).
“The fact that we have to experience such a significant data audit proves the possibilities of improving data acquisition and processing. However, we should not get carried away with excessive criticism towards statisticians. They work with the material that is available and provided by households and entrepreneurs. And there are often big problems there Citizens sometimes do not want to disclose data, the same is the case with entrepreneurs, and when new information comes in, data has to be revised, for example, inflation or unemployment there are clusters where it is with high regularity,” says SEB banks economist Dainis Gašpuitis.
Uldis Rutkaste, head of the Monetary Policy Department of the Bank of Latvia, also believes that the differences are huge. “Unfortunately, in the Baltic States, especially after the pandemic, the statistics jump. Before the pandemic, the situation was much better, but after it, unfortunately, the published numbers cannot be trusted. They change so drastically that even the trends themselves change. This makes it difficult to analyze the economy and forecast it. There is room for improvement and we need to look at how to improve it. This problem has been identified, but it will take some time. We must make policy decisions and base them on real data,” emphasizes U. Rutkaste.
Read the whole article in newspapers Day in the issue of Wednesday, October 23! If you want to continue reading the newspaper in printed form, you can subscribe to it+