Today, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued the attached Schedule of Release Dates for Principal Federal economic indicators for 2000.

Principal Federal economic indicators -- the major statistical series that describe the current condition of the economy -- are compiled, released, and periodically evaluated in accordance with procedures established in OMB Statistical Policy Directive No. 3. As the procedures require, each agency that issues principal economic indicators has provided OMB with its schedule of releases for the upcoming calendar year. If special, unforeseen circumstances make it necessary to change any scheduled release date after this consolidated schedule is issued, the agency must announce and explain the change as soon as it is known.

In accordance with Directive No. 3, each release of a principal economic indicator will include an announcement of the date and time of the next release. The last release in the calendar year will contain a schedule for the next calendar year.

The OMB schedule is available electronically on the Internet at /OMB/pubpress/index.html. In addition, OMB has indicated that the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board at http://dsbb.imf.org/sdds.htm will serve as the United States’ primary means of disseminating precise release dates for those data categories required by the IMF’s Special Data Dissemination Standards that are not covered in the OMB Schedule of Release Dates.

Each issuing agency has an office that can provide the release schedule for its indicators. The telephone numbers for those offices are:

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