China’s statistics bureau chief admits it’s struggling to track scale of nation’s burgeoning ‘new economy’, including e-commerce and internet finance
Ning Jizhe says his bureau needs better data to assess impact of sector on country’s economic performance
The new head of China’s statistics bureau last month visited a Beijing district that is home to some of the biggest technology companies to deliver the message that his agency must improve tracking of the new economy “as soon as possible”.
Ning Jizhe said in a meeting with Beijing’s mayor and top Communist Party official that it was challenging to accurately track new industries and business models, according to an article published by his agency, the National Bureau of Statistics.
Officials have not created systematic ways to collect and classify data on the new economy, said Ning, a close adviser to Premier Li Keqiang who was named in the position in February.
A report this week shows just what he is up against in tracking a fast-changing economy while overhauling a bureaucracy of 20,000 people producing data economists have long questioned.
The bureau’s own report faulted it for not keeping up with developments in the “new economy”, and cited wrongdoing by officials who improperly profited from agency data.
Smaller cities in China take the lead in e-commerce
Getting an accurate read on new economic variables such as how much consumers spend on purchases from shopping websites like Taobao or online food delivery service Ele.me is key to understanding the broader shift in the world’s second-largest economy.