Economic news covers financial trends like stock and bond markets, interest rates, inflation and unemployment. It also includes the impact of business decisions, such as mergers and acquisitions. The economy is affected by political and legal decisions, too — including monetary policy, taxes and trade agreements. It’s important to keep in mind that many of your readers don’t understand the intricacies of business or financial news, so try to present it in an easy-to-understand way.
For example, instead of writing that a number rose or fell by X percentage, write what the result means for consumers: “The number indicates that the company’s revenue has jumped significantly compared to last year, but its profits remain flat.”
In addition, if you’re reporting on economic indicators that are based on surveys, be sure to point out that survey data is often subject to error and uncertainty. These errors can be due to a wide range of reasons, including a long lag between the survey and the data release and the accumulation of information between the two events. Rigobon and Sack have developed a methodology for estimating the asset price response to economic indicator releases that is cleaned of these measurement errors. They find that the estimated responses are typically larger than those generated by standard OLS methods.
To make your news more interesting, look beyond the boardroom and reports to explore how economic issues affect people’s lives. Whether it’s a local job loss or the effect of tariffs on global supply chains, stories that show how economic changes affect real people can be highly compelling.
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