Economic data releases are indications of the underlying economic fundamentals of the economy, for example, GDP, (un)employment, monetary aggregates and inflation amongst many others. These data are generally collected by government agencies and usually published at predetermined times via various media. Most economic data pertaining to the financial markets are published via newswire services such as Reuters, Bloomberg and Dow Jones. Some series of data are published on a weekly basis, whilst others are released on a monthly or even quarterly basis. Different countries employ diverse methods of calculating similar data and have wide ranging attitudes as to keeping to the prescribed publication calendar. For example, the US stick rigidly to their calendar, whereas Germany, for example, would appear to be less concerned with the exact time of publication of data.
There are a multitude of users of the collated information and traders and financial analysts are one such group of users of these data. Such information tends to shape market participants' view of the country's underlying, or fundamental, economic situation and its outlook. This 'view' of the economy has important ramifications for all markets, whether it be stocks, bonds, foreign exchange or commodities and a thorough understanding of how differences in the published figures and the market's expectation of these figures can affect a market is necessary for anybody contemplating holding positions in today's financial markets.
Different government agencies release data at widely varying times, some sticking to a specific timetable, whilst others release data within a time 'window'. US data are generally released at 0830 or 1000 hrs NY time, depending on the data series being published and these times/data releases are published in advance by the collection agencies. Germany, on the other hand, releases some of its data within a window, for example, the collection agency may stipulate that a particular data series will be released 'sometime within the week commencing ..... '
Given the magnitude of the numbers involved, the published data are pretty reliable, but it should be borne in mind that all published data is subject to future revisions. Some countries' data collection is also generally more accurate than others and it is usually the case that the more the developed the capital markets in a particular country, the more relaible the data produced. For example, US data is likely to be more reliable and predictable than data from, say, Brazil with its less developed capital markets. The reason for this divergence in quality of data being that countries with more highly developed markets have a greater need for reliable data and, as a result, more valuable economic resources are dedicated to data collection and analysis than in other countries where capital markets do not figure so highly in the economy. Consequently, data published by countries, such as the US, tend to be more highly scrutinised and less subject to backward looking revisions, although this doesn't mean that the published data are always 100% accurate upon first release. Different data series are more reliable than others. For example, US Durable Goods data can exhibit wide fluctuations from month to month with sometimes significant revisions being made to previous data. Whereas, Consumer Price Inflation data tend to be relatively more reliable and easier for economists to predict. This point is important to bear in mind when considering such data and markets' response to them upon publication.