The federal government currently labels 36 statistics as principal federal economic indicators (PFEIs), created in 1985 by OMB’s Statistical Policy Directive No. 3. Because such statistics have significant value to the public and policymakers their release to the public must be timely, accessible, and released according to an established policy. To protect these statistics from political interference, SPD 3 requires these indicators be published by the designated statistical agency on specified release dates, which protects the integrity and credibility of the estimates, ensures that they are not subject to manipulation, and does not give any user an unfair advantage, so that businesses and the public can be confident the statistics are objective. Learn more about each PFEI by clicking on the latest release date.
