UK real-time macro data characteristics

We characterise the relationships between preliminary and subsequent measurements for 16 commonly-used UK macroeconomic indicators drawn from two existing real-time data sets and a new nominal variable database. Most preliminary measurements are biased predictors of subsequent measurements, with some revision series affected by multiple structural breaks. To illustrate how these findings facilitate real-time forecasting, we use a vector autoregresion to generate real-time one step ahead probability event forecasts for 1990Q1 to 1999Q2. Ignoring the predictability in initial measurements understates considerably the probability of above trend output growth.