The Proliferation of a Poor Error

A few weeks ago The Bhutanese mis-calculated the 5-year 2008–2012 inflation rate.

In today's Kuensel, the error was repeated again ("How valid is the claim to have halved poverty?") . The anonymous writer — Layman on kuenselonline.com — quoted the wrongly calculated number, 39.6%. The correct figure is 46.1%, more than 6% higher.

While knowledge can proliferate quickly, so can errors. The media should take extra care when reporting numbers that can have great implications on policy, especially when copying articles from online forums that are written by anonymous contributors (a questionable practice by itself).