Letter from Stephen Poloz reveals lack of faith in Statistics Canada
As China and Argentina have proven, the easiest way to improve the economy is to fiddle with the statistics.
Canada, it seems, is preparing to go down the same path.
On Friday, the head of Statistics Canada quit. He said that poor investments in technology meant he didn't want to "preside over the decline" a developed-world statistical office.
Today, the WSJ revealed a February that Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz sent to Statistics Canada. It said there had been a "progressive and, in recent months, accelerating deterioration in the reliability of the informatics infrastructure" at the agency and said it had "a particularly negative effect on the dissemination of key economic data."
He warned the BOC must "develop a plan to manage and ideally mitigate these risks in the months and years ahead."
