Dutch GDP Data Revisions: Are They Predictable and Where Do They Come from?

This paper examines whether the preliminary releases of GDP incorporate efficiently all available information or the preliminary estimates contain information that can be useful in predicting forthcoming GDP revisions. Forecast rationality tests are applied to distinguish between these two characterisations. We analyse the revision over three horizons: the very short-term revision after one quarter, the short-term revision after two years, and the long-term revision. We find evidence of the predictability of all short- and long-term revisions of Dutch GDP data. Our evidence for the revisions of the seasonally adjusted quarter-on-quarter growth rates are in line with the findings on G7 countries. Moreover, we analyse the revisions of the six expenditure components and ten production components that constitute GDP. Only the preliminary releases of household consumption and the construction sector seem to explain the GDP data revisions. However, the general conclusion is that the forecast rationality hypothesis is rejected for almost all components separately, but that almost no individual component’s preliminary data release can forecast the revisions of GDP.