Snow Blind?

I am the first to applaud great PR tactics, but am wondering if the use of 'PR statistics' might be getting a little out of hand.

The fast reacting PR team at the Federation for Small Businesses suggests that 20% of employees are off work today due to the snow and that this will cost the UK economy £1billion. They have been joined by London Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Centre for Economic and Business Research in providing comment.

Five Live had the decency to say that it was a little early for this type of calculation when they reported it at lunchtime. You can say that again. Not really sure if this adds anything at all to the sum of useful knowledge of BBC Online readers/viewers.