Here is a piece in the South China Morning Post on that perennial favourite, the veracity of Chinese economic data

It looks at GDP, industrial profits, and investment data (and more). For example:

  • One of the perplexing issues is that the NBS has often reported positive year-on-year growth rates in percentage terms, while growth in absolute yuan terms has been negative.
  • This deviation, which barely happened in the past, has reinforced scepticism over the quality of the data and fuelled the suspicion that the NBS generates data outcomes that match the policy goals of the Chinese government leadership.

Uh, right ….

Here is the article, worth a read (its not overly long, but not short either) :

A new set of Chinese economic figures adds up to yet another headache for statisticians