FX.co ★ China understates GDP growth data

Senior fellow in the Carnegie Asia Program, Yukon Huang, stated that China’s official statistics do not always show the real situation in the country.

According to the expert, mistrust of the official statistics is linked to its non-transparency. In particular, the data released by local authorities look too overstated.

The final figure should be much higher than the real GDP growth rates. However, this indicator is not calculated by simple multiplication and the national statistical bureau does not take into account data from provinces.

Huang believes that the data are understated. The modern statistical bodies in China have not learnt yet to consider the services sector and private production objectively because centralized planning used to dominate the social sphere before.

Currently, the Chinese economy has been expanding amid attraction of the private and services sectors. As a result, the general growth is undervalued. Huang also cites the UN statistics, according to which China’s official GDP data was underestimated by 3-4%.