The White House said Wednesday it was unlikely that key federal inflation and labor reports impacted by the government shutdown would be released. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Democrats may have permanently damaged the federal statistical system, with October CPI and jobs reports likely never being released, and all of that economic data released will be permanently impaired, leaving our policymakers at the Fed flying blind at a critical period,\u201d White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.<\/p>\n
Economists had already expected that October’s CPI data on inflation might not be released because federal workers who would have collected the data if the government had been open were not deployed after Oct. 1.<\/p>\n
After Leavitt\u2019s briefing, the White House clarified that September\u2019s jobs report, for which data was collected before the government shut down, would be released once the stoppage ended. However, October\u2019s jobs report, originally scheduled to be released last week, may not be.<\/p>\n
The most recent jobs report issued before the shutdown began was the August jobs report, which was released on Sept. 5. <\/p>\n
The Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Department of Labor did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Leavitt\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n
Already, policymakers, market participants and economists expect a fog of data after the shutdown ends.<\/p>\n
Opinions on how the lack of data could impact the Federal Reserve\u2019s next monetary policy moves are mixed.<\/p>\n