The first estimate of a statistic is built from incomplete surveys and early returns. As late responses, tax data and annual benchmarks arrive, the agency updates it. US payrolls are revised twice in the following two months, and annually; GDP is revised for years.
Revisions can change the story. A month first reported as strong jobs growth may later turn out to have been weak.
Why it matters
Markets move on the first release, because that is the information available at the time. Economists, and central banks, care about the revised figures because they are closer to the truth.
On FinVolio
FinVolio stores the latest published figure for every period, so charts show revised history. Estimates are scored against the first figure FinVolio records for a period.
General information, not advice.