GDP growth of yesterday may disappoint tomorrow

18 July 2019

'If Belgium completely unexpectedly invaded the Netherlands tomorrow, Statistics Netherlands would adjust the growth rates of 2018, 2017 and 2016 downwards. This is [suggestie: an example of] the undesirable consequence of the manner in which seasonal corrections are being applied at the moment."

This is the introduction of an academic publication from this month's edition of the Economisch Statistiche Berichten journal, written by UG Associate Professor in Economy Jan Jacobs and PhD student Barend Abeln, who is writing a thesis on this topic. The researchers plead for seasonal corrections without retrospective revisions – or that, when Statistics Netherlands publishes new data, previous figures should not be changed.