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AnonTechie writes with an article from Gizmodo:

The world's eighth oldest bank is joining the modern age. From 2015, it will monitor social networks and mine them for information and early signs of economic ups and downs.

The Bank [of England] is setting up a new taskforce that will investigate how it can use all kinds of new data — because it believes it will be more timely than current, official streams of information. In particular, it's mentioned that it will measure the frequency of job searches to understand potential unemployment rates and monitor online shopping prices to assess inflation.

The special team, set up by the Bank's chief economist, Andy Haldane, has been charged with exploring how new unconventional sources of data could improve its picture of Britain's recovery.

[Source]: http://news.sky.com/story/1397985/bank-of-england-to-monitor-social-networks