White out: Snowstorm forces rare delays of economic reports

A severe snowstorm has forced the federal government to do something it seldom does — postpone release of several monthly economic reports. The Treasury Department announced that the release of the monthly budget report for January, which had been scheduled for Wednesday, will not occur until next week. The Commerce Department announced at least a one-day delay for release of its report on January retail sales and the monthly look at business inventories. Both reports, which had been scheduled to be released Thursday, were tenatively scheduled to be released a day late on Friday. Officials said the delays were caused by the government shutdown in Washington which has meant that about 230,000 federal workers have been off since Friday afternoon.