ET says “Inflation data delayed, no reasons given“. How surprising is that?
For a long time, Inflation data would come out at 12 noon on Friday. Then markets decided to go nuts. So data was moved to 5:30 pm on thursday. When the data was good, the authorities would release it in the middle of the trading day – just to perk up the markets. And the markets, being very smart inanimate objects, did not give a rat’s ass.
Now, today, the data is late. It could be bad – the figure being much higher than expected, because, the dumb-asses sitting in political gaddis have decided not to cut fuel prices even when crude is at $45. And because it’s bad, they’re not releasing it early. Or, it could just be incompetence. Or worse, the bureaucrats decided to go back to 5:30pm without telling anyone. Or anything, really. No point even thinking about it, because we don’t know and everything is conjecture.
Update: Just after I typed this mail, the data was out. It’s 8.40% up – a better figure than the last week. Again, another odd time, but I must say the rest of this post is still valid.
We need a policy for data updates. All data updates should happen in a closed room, with no cellphone or internet access, only to media. At a fixed time, all internet ports should be opened, and the news should be placed on the agency web site, for all people to know instantly. Until we have that, this kind of “is it there yet?” will continue.
