Fed Official Urges Reallocation Of Funds for Statistical Studies; Blinder: More Data Needed on Key Sectors
Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Alan S. Blinder suggested reallocating government spending on economic statistics to more accurately represent various sectors of the economy.</br></br>Speaking to a Commerce Department symposium on economic statistics, Blinder noted that about 15 percent of federal funds for economic statistics is used for agriculture and another 10 percent for energy and mining.</br></br>"In an economy in which agriculture and mining each represent only 2 percent of real GDP, I believe that we must ask whether a reallocation of funds is in order," he said.</br></br>The GDP, or gross domestic product, is the total output of goods and services in the United States and the broadest measure of the nation's economic health.</br></br>Blinder asserted that federal agencies are unlikely to see any big increases in their budgets for monitoring economic performance. Thus, to achieve any improvements, "we must take a serious look at how funding for economic statistics is allocated," he said.