Something is rotten at Statistic Canada
Someone has some explaining to do because the Canadian GDP release was a mess. The numbers hit the newswires about 90 second early but that's the least of the problems. This number looks like it leaked.
Statistics Canada releases virtually every Canadian data point and they're always ultra-precise in the timing.
My guess here is that someone broke or leaked the number early because of some IT screw up. Then they decided to release it 90 second early because it was out there anyway.
There's talk that it was on the calendar at Investing.com early but they would have got that from someone else. I can say for sure that Reuters and Bloomberg didn't have it early.
It's unacceptable for a number to be leaked early, especially a number as big as GDP and at a time when it's way out of line with expectations.
Hopefully an explanation is forthcoming and I'll update this post when I get one.
Update: I've found out what happened.
Statistics Canada itself blew it. They published at least part of the report on their RSS reader and their website at 8:04 am -- 26 minutes before the scheduled release time. You can see from the above chart that it took about 5 minutes for the market to pick it up.
Note the time stamp:
What an embarrassment for an agency that's had problems with leaks in the past.
