ONS told to get 'back to the future' to get accurate economic data

Number-crunchers need to shake off their Fifties timewarp and get “back to the future” to measure the economy more accurately, former Bank of England Deputy Governor Sir Charlie Bean has said.

The London School of Economics professor was commissioned to review economic statistics by the Chancellor last summer.

His final report found the Office for National Statistics’ figures — designed over 50 years ago — are not up to the task of measuring the rapidly growing digital economy.

Bean said UK growth could be up to 0.67% higher if contributions from the likes of Airbnb and Amazon were fully captured: “We need to take economic statistics back to the future or we risk missing out an important part of the modern economy from official figures.”

The professor also called for cultural change at the ONS, a new monitoring body to improve standards, and more use of other data collected by the Government in producing official statistics.