Financial markets are eagerly awaiting the U.S. September inflation report that’s due on Oct. 24. However, some analysts and investors are raising doubts about the accuracy of the data ahead of its release.
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With the Bureau of Labor Statistics already under scrutiny over the efficacy of its data and the federal government in Washington, D.C. shutdown, concerns are being raised on Wall Street about whether the September inflation reading will present a full picture of consumer prices in the U.S.
Vishal Khanduja, a fixed income analyst at Morgan Stanley (MS), said in a recent interview: “Skeptics like me are going to be focused on how clean is this data… What were the accommodations made for the lack of full personnel staff showing up? What adjustments were made before the data got reported?”
Trump Factor
Rising skepticism about the inflation report also comes after U.S. President Donald Trump in August fired Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer after the agency reported a large downward revision in nonfarm payrolls data, making the U.S. economy look weak and sending stocks lower.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is also grappling with recent staff cuts, which have forced it to eliminate several U.S. cities from its data collection efforts. Now, it is putting together a key inflation report with most of the government closed, a situation analysts say could result in incomplete data.
Mike Wilson, chief investment officer at Morgan Stanley, said in an interview on CNBC, “I don’t think we’re going to learn a whole lot from this (inflation) data that we’re not seeing at the moment.”
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