The Globe and Mail reports on the Canadian Border Services Agency’s decision to move its monthly system upgrade from the 25th of the month. Turns out this took systems offline on the busiest day of the month for importer and exporter filing of key monthly paperwork, and when problems arose during system restart … well, you get the picture. Money quote:
However, a goof the border agency made in restarting its systems on Nov. 25, following an upgrade, has forced Statscan to issue a massive $1.9-billion upward revision — a little more than Tajikistan’s entire gross domestic product — to trade figures for the month, damaging its credibility with Bay Street in the process. The debacle will also likely force a restatement of key U.S. data.
Statscan said yesterday that instead of plunging by a startling 10.2 per cent to $27.4-billion in November — a drop whose accuracy many economists challenged at the time — imports actually fell by 4 per cent to $29.3-billion.
Those from the United States, in particular, came in at $19.5-billion, rather than $18.2-billion, as the agency reported Jan. 12.
Even more embarrassing, there were strong hints yesterday that the foul-up also may force Statscan’s U.S. counterpart, which shares import and export data with the Canadian agency, to revise fourth-quarter gross domestic product figures it released last week, perhaps by as much as 0.5 per cent, several economists estimated.