Trust infrastructure
Editorial standards
The rules ZIX holds itself to. Published so that readers can hold it to them too.
Sourcing
Every factual claim is attributable to a named source. Where a claim rests on ZIX's own calculation, that is stated and the arithmetic is published.
Primary sources are linked directly. ZIX does not cite reporting of a source where the source itself is public.
Where a figure is contested, the contest is reported rather than resolved by editorial preference.
Anonymous sourcing is not used for quantitative claims. A number that cannot be attributed is not published.
Analysis
Every piece states, before its argument, how much weight the underlying data can bear.
Forecasts are not published. ZIX reports what has happened and what is scheduled, and identifies what would have to change for a situation to change.
Where an argument depends on a series that is stale, broken or unverified, the piece says so in the body rather than in a footnote.
Analysis is written to be legible to a reader who disagrees with it.
Conflicts of interest
Contributors declare financial interests in any entity or sector they write about. Declarations are published with the piece.
A contributor with a material interest in the subject does not write the piece; they may be quoted, with the interest disclosed.
Commercial relationships between ZIX and any entity appearing in an item are disclosed on that item.
Sponsors and commissioning clients do not see editorial content before publication and have no right of review.
Language
ZIX does not use promotional framing for economic developments, and does not use catastrophising framing either. Both distort.
Official announcements are reported as announcements, not as outcomes.
Approvals, pledges, commitments, disbursements and realised flows are named precisely and never used interchangeably.
Corrections policy
Errors are corrected in public. When ZIX gets something wrong, the item is amended, a correction notice is appended to it stating what was wrong and when it was fixed, and the correction is listed below. The original claim is described in the notice rather than deleted.
A distinction is drawn between a correction — ZIX published something inaccurate — and a revision, where an upstream source has restated its own data. Revisions happen continuously in the live series and are visible in the vintage shown on each figure. They are not corrections and are not logged here.
To report an error, contact ZIX with the page, the specific claim and the basis for believing it wrong. Reports that identify a real error are acted on regardless of who sends them.