US stats officials say GDP, inflation measures are off

Washington

TOP officials from two US government economic-statistics agencies said their measurement tools are understating growth and overstating some components of inflation by modest amounts, while cautioning that this doesn't explain the sluggish expansion in recent years.

"The Bureau of Labor Statistics and Bureau of Economic Analysis agree that price index mismeasurement continues to lead to understated growth in real output over time," five current and former officials from the agencies wrote in a paper published on May 3 in the American Economic Association's Journal of Economic Perspectives and presented last week at a meeting of the BEA's advisory committee.