We are all impatient to know what is going on in the economy ‘right now’. But given the delays in the publication of official data, effectively economists are driving looking through the rear-view mirror as they do not know where the economy is until they have driven well past it. The statistical office in the UK (the ONS), for example, publishes quarterly GDP estimates about 27 days after the end of the quarter, and this is relatively quick by international standards.