ELSTAT suspends flash GDP estimates

Greece’s statistics service ELSTAT has suspended until further notice the release of flash quarterly estimates on the country’s gross domestic product because of divergences with provisional estimates, an official at the statistics service said yesterday. The move means that flash data will not be issued on August 14. Nationwide quarterly GDP data will be released on September 1, taking into account more information than the early indicator of the flash estimate. A senior ELSTAT official told Reuters the suspension of the flash data was necessary because flash data was issued on the basis of incomplete information, which subsequently needed revisions when more data came in. “We will probably not publish flash estimates for the next coming quarters after recent divergences,” the ELSTAT official said. There have been considerable differences in the past two quarters between flash data, issued 45 days after the lapse of the reference period, and provisional data that follows and is released within a 60-day period. “We don’t have all the necessary data for the flash estimates on time. We just have data only for two months of the quarter on employment and not the final data for the current account balance,” the official said. “We want to explore the availability of the necessary data sources and improve the consistency of the flash estimates.” Ireland, Luxembourg and Sweden do not issue