(Bloomberg) — Key UK economic data will continue to be released at 7 a.m., a blow to traders and investors who wanted the statistics office to revert to the pre-pandemic norm of 9:30 a.m.
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The statistics regulator said Monday it was accepting the recommendations of the Office for National Statistics, which said the current arrangements serve “the public good” and expressed doubts that it could handle increased visits to its website if the data were released during market hours.
“Given the differing stakeholder views on this issue, we commit to revisit this position once we have launched our new website and data API and it has demonstrated the required robustness for a year to mitigate any risk of unequal access to our statistics,” Michael Keoghan, director general for economic and social statistics at the ONS, said in a letter to Ed Humpherson, director general of the Office for Statistics Regulation. “When we review this again, we will engage widely and consider all options not just 0700 and 0930.”
Humpherson replied: “We recognise the value of increased visibility of key statistics and are keen to maintain the orderly release of these vital statistics.” He said the ONS should reconsider its approach once it has addressed the website issues.
“We would welcome an update from ONS on its future review of an alternative release time for market sensitive economic statistics by 31 December 2025,” he said.
As the review was under way, investors called for a switch back to 9:30 a.m. in order to improve liquidity. Currently, data are released half an hour before sterling interest-rate trading opens and an hour ahead of UK government bonds. Such rates markets are vital to the pricing of trillions of pounds of assets including mortgages.
All members of a Bank of England committee made up of leading market participants favored data releases returning to within market hours, with the exception of one who was agnostic, according to minutes of their September meeting. Data releases outside of market hours can cause “spreads to widen due to reduced liquidity” which can be “transmitted to the wider economy via increased costs,” the minutes said.
The ONS initially changed the way it releases market-sensitive data including inflation and employment reports in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
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