This study has two primary objectives: 1) To investigate whether official data releases of macroeconomic indicators are systematically revised 2) To evaluate the accuracy and disagreement of professional forecasters with respect to initial releases and final values. The analyses are applied to individual forecasts and real-time releases using a unique data set regarding 52 macroeconomic indicators for the US, the Eurozone, and Germany for the period of 1999-2010. The empirical analysis of data revisions shows that some indicators are considerably and systematically revised. Forecasters tend to account for systematic revisions and try to predict final values for certain indicators. For others, forecasters appear to be targeting initial releases, even though these indicators are systematically revised. In the latter case, forecasters use information inefficiently. Forecasters’ disagreement regarding fundamentals is higher during domestic recessions and when the national stock market is volatile.

Keywords: Rational expectations, macroeconomic indicators, disagreement, survey analysis, real-time data

JEL classification: D81, D84, E17