Statistics found to be flawed

Officers at the National Bureau of Statistics uncovered at least 60,000 violations of China's statistical laws during an investigation conducted between May and October last year, said Xiong Zhennan, director of the bureau's policy and regulations department. About 20,000 of these violations have resulted in prosecutions and some Yn30m has been collected in fines so far. Xiong said that more irregularities could have been found with better law enforcement. He insisted that the bureau's headline gross domestic product growth figures were accurate, but many independent economists believe that official data overstates growth. Bruce Murray, resident representative of the Asian Development Bank in Beijing, commented that the bank would consider adding a note to its briefings warning that there were errors and uncertainties in Chinese statistics. Separately, Dr Min Tang, chief economist at the ADB, said China is likely to introduce in the next two years a more reliable way of measuring economic activity. It will be based on the industrial sampling method that has been tested in Jiangsu province.