Institution

Eurostat

Year

2010

Level

Intermediate

Abstract

The experimental method and results from the development and production of a flash estimate of GDP as an official statistic at Statistics South Africa are presented and discussed. This could inform national statistical organisations operating under similar statistical production constraints in other newly industrialised countries or elsewhere. The use of the flash estimate as an early indicator of business cycle slowdowns and upturns is also presented to demonstrate one possible by-product use of the flash estimate.