China’s statistics bureau to take over accounting of provincial GDP data to combat fraud
Problem of discrepancy between regional and national GDP figures has improved, but gap is still large, official says
China’s National Bureau of Statistics will take over data collection at the regional level from 2019, a government official said, replacing the current system in which the combined economic output of the nation’s provinces has long exceeded the official total for the country as a whole.
Li Xiaochao, the bureau’s deputy head, said on Monday there had been significant improvement in the long-standing discrepancy between national and regional GDP data.
The government had stepped up inspections of potentially fraudulent data and was working towards unifying the accounting systems used by national and local authorities.
“The problem of discrepancy between regional and national GDP data has significantly improved, but [the gap] is still large,” Li said in an interview with China Information News that was published on the bureau’s website on Monday.
“This situation is not conducive to accurately understanding regional economic trends, scientifically implementing macroeconomic controls, and impacts the credibility of government statistics,” Li said. The gap has been narrowing, but the discrepancy between provincial GDP and the national figure was still 2.76 trillion yuan (US$415.1 billion) last year, according to Reuters calculations.