The UK data agency has suspended the publication of the producer price index.

The UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) announced on Friday that it has suspended the release of the producer price index. This marks another setback for the institution, which has faced criticism from the Bank of England over previous data collection issues.

During efforts to improve the systems that produce the producer price index and the services producer price index, ONS identified a problem in the chain linkage methods used in the quality assurance process for calculating these indices. The issue affects data from 2008 onward, with significant impacts on annual PPI rates observed in 2022 and 2023, coinciding with the global rise in inflation. While ONS expects an upward revision for the main output PPI, a downward revision for the main services producer price index (SPPI) is also likely.