StatCounter

Sunday 30 November 2008

Government statistics

Having mislead us over inflation figures and unemployment figures for years it appears that
"The Government's official house price index, produced by the Land Registry, has been accused of misleading homebuyers and policymakers after it emerged that it excludes repossessions and auctions on the grounds that they do not reflect the 'full market value' of the sale.

The latest Land Registry figures, published on Friday, showed a 10.1 per cent annual fall in prices across England and Wales, a considerably more benign figure than the indices from Halifax and Nationwide, which reveal prices falling by 15 per cent and 13.9 per cent respectively.

In the past the gap between the figures has been attributed to time-lag differences. But concern is growing that the Land Registry figures, regarded as the 'gold standard' of house price data and used by the Bank of England in setting interest rates, may be fundamentally flawed, as repossessions are ignored."

Is anybody in the slightest bit surprised to learn this? We have been lied to for years by this Labour government and they have been protected by the BBC and other media from proper scrutiny. Only now as their rule comes close to an end do more and more stories leak out. What next?

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