So why hasn't such an important statistic been updated to reflect modern conditions?

A rating may reflect economic conditions beyond any official's control.

But scientists said these data reflected only local conditions and were not fully reliable.

Thus the figures on wealth holding tend to reflect conditions stretching over parts of two years.

They may reflect general climatic conditions of a certain period, but only on very large time and geographic scales.

He said the changes in the list accurately reflected changing conditions in the state.

All of the gain, however, was in government rather than private payrolls, which would more accurately reflect economic conditions.

The velocity term is not intended to reflect current conditions in the business cycle.

Care must then be taken to ensure that the secondary data source properly reflects regional or national conditions.

It is updated each year to reflect new data and political conditions.