Hedge Fund Data Playbook Helps Bank of Israel Act Fast in Crisis

Around early March, as it became clear the Covid-19 outbreak would soon hit Israel, economists inside the country’s central bank realized they needed to get data faster to track the damage.

While the economy was bound to seize up as lockdowns shut down activity, the Bank of Israel would only just be getting statistics from January and February. The answer was to turn to alternative sources like credit card spending or electricity usage, following a path increasingly taken by hedge funds in recent years to gain an edge on markets.