US government shutdown would delay release of key economic data, official says

investing.com:

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The publication of major U.S. economic data, including employment and inflation reports of critical importance to policymakers and investors, will be suspended indefinitely should the federal government shut down at the end of this week because of lack of funding, a government official said.

The suspension of the reports would occur across all government agencies such as the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the Commerce Department's Census Bureau and Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), and leave policymakers at the Federal Reserve, investors, businesses and ordinary Americans in the dark as they make key decisions.

Congress so far has failed to pass any spending bills to fund federal agency programs in the fiscal year starting on Oct. 1 amid a feud within the Republican Party. Leaders in the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives were due to try to advance steep spending cuts this week that stand no chance of becoming law, bolstering the prospect of a shutdown on Sunday.

«Under a lapse, the Bureau of Labor Statistics would cease all program operations, only publishing completed data scheduled for release as part of orderly shutdown activities,» a Biden administration official, speaking on background, said in response to questions from Reuters. «As a result, the September jobs report and the Consumer Price Index would not be released.»

The Labor Department is currently scheduled to release the next monthly employment report on Oct. 6. The CPI report is due on Oct. 12.

The approach is a change from the last government shutdown between December 2018 and January 2019, which did not affect the Labor Department and allowed the BLS and its Employment