Fresh doubts raised over reliability of China’s latest GDP figures
A former official at a government regulatory body slams new National Bureau of Statistics data and claims only mainland’s top decision-makers know the truth
Concerns about the trustworthiness of China’s economic data can be traced back decades and Tuesday’s official gross domestic product (GDP) figures have renewed doubts about the actual resilience of the economy.
The observers believe the poor performance of other indicators shows that conditions facing the mainland’s economy are worse than the GDP report suggested, despite the government defending the credibility of its figures.
The National Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday that China’s GDP rose 6.9 per cent in 2015 compared with the year before – the slowest growth in 25 years.
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Wang Baoan, head of the statistics bureau, said he stood by the accuracy of the data. He told a press conference on Tuesday that the appraisal of GDP featured solid and accurate data.
However, one former official with a government regulatory body said the economic data was “not accurately reported” and that only China’s top decision-makers knew the real situation.
“The [“around 7 per cent)] target must be achieved, [so] a lower level is not acceptable,” said the person, who declined to be identified.
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An economist at a bank based in southern China said the methods used by the statistics bureau were scientific, but the data had been inflated in an attempt to meet political needs.