Economy – First weekly COVID-19 Economic Dashboard published

The Treasury’s Chief Economic Adviser Tim Ng says the Dashboard will provide a regular snapshot of economic conditions as they are developing.

“Economic conditions are changing rapidly as a result of COVID-19 and the Government’s response. There is a strong appetite for timely and useful information and analysis, so the Treasury has developed this Dashboard as a supplement to our Weekly Economic Update. Both the Dashboard and the Weekly Economic Update are now published on the Treasury website every Friday,” says Tim Ng.

The COVID-19 Economic Dashboard shows a range of data, including novel high-frequency data sources from across government and the private sector, pertinent to economic conditions. It has sections that focus on the domestic economy such as consumer card spending and business confidence, domestic financial conditions, and the international economic and financial situation. Commentary on these aspects is provided in the Weekly Economic Update.

“When you look at the Dashboard’s content, novel data sets like traffic flows and card spending clearly show the impact on the economy. Data on the uptake of the wage subsidy scheme allow us to track how support measures such as these are mitigating this impact,” says Tim Ng.

“The Dashboard’s content, like the Weekly Economic Update’s, will in general change as circumstances evolve and new data and information, including novel indicators under development, become more relevant. The Treasury and other government agencies are working continually to expand the data available to provide a comprehensive view of what is happening.”