International Monetary Fund Warns of Skewed Data due to COVID-19

According to its weekly blog post, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is warning that key economic indicators may be skewed and perhaps less accurate, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. A post written by three members of the IMF this week said, “Without reliable data, policymakers cannot assess how badly the pandemic is hurting people and the economy, nor can they properly monitor the recovery.” For example, the calculation of retail prices often requires physical visits to stores but this is currently not possible in many countries,” the fund explained. “Similarly, surveying businesses about their production and investment plans is difficult as many have temporarily shut down or simply do not have the resources to respond to statistical questionnaires.”