A real-time analysis of the Swiss trade account

Jan Jacobs and Jan-Egbert Sturm

No 167, Money Macro and Finance (MMF) Research Group Conference 2006 from Money Macro and Finance Research Group

Abstract: First estimates of trade account statistics attract quite some attention in the media as they contain substantial information on recent economic developments. It is well known, however, that subsequent revisions of in particular this series can sometimes have substantial consequences for ex post evaluations of the economy. As a small open economy, Swiss overall growth as measured by its GDP is particularly prone for these revisions. This paper sets up a real-time dataset which is then used to analyze to what extent the first release of current account data (as compared to its revision) contains a structural bias and/or can be improved upon by the use of survey results as gathered by KOF at the ETH Zurich. If this is the case, this would allow for improvements in its future first release and thereby enhance the current assessment of the Swiss economy

Keywords: current account statistics; real-time analysis; data revision (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C22 C53 C82 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007-02-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ets
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mmf:mmfc06:167

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