Because of the endless stream of negative news coming out of China, Premier Li Keqiang had to grasp this opportunity to blow his own horn at the World Economic Forum meeting in Dalian Sept. 9.
“China is not a source of global financial risk,” Li said. “China is a growth engine of the global economy.”
He is convinced China will keep growing at high speed and that the transformation of the economy is progressing as the regime finds new sources of growth and undertakes reforms.
The only problem with these statements is that his own “Li Keqiang Index” is saying the exact opposite.
According to a leaked memo by the U.S. Department of State, Li told a U.S. official in 2007 that the official numbers were unreliable and that he uses three proxies to better estimate growth in the economy: railway cargo volume, electricity consumption, and new loans disbursed by banks.
According to an analysis by Credit Suisse, which replicated the index using exactly the three inputs Li mentioned, growth in China has just about come to a standstill.
