UK statistics office delays retail sales data release by two weeks

LONDON (Reuters) -Britain's Office for National Statistics said on Tuesday it was delaying Friday's scheduled release of July retail sales data by two weeks, the latest in a string of setbacks for the national statistics agency.

The figures are now due to be published on September 5 "to allow for further quality assurance", the ONS said.

The ONS has faced criticism from the Bank of England for failing to publish reliable data on the labour market. It suspended its producer price figures in March when it also delayed the release of trade balance data.

In June, it said it had overstated the April reading of Britain's main inflation gauge.

A government review later that month found problems with the ONS' leadership culture and that it had put too little priority on funding the collection of core economic statistics.

In response to the report, the ONS said it would accept a recommendation to split temporarily its top role into two operational and statistical jobs, and to refocus some resources.

(Writing by William Schomberg; Editing by Sachin Ravikumar and David Milliken)

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