ANALYSIS: Can the World Trust China’s Economic Data?

China’s data showed its economy expanded at a better than expected pace in the third quarter, but some warn that the regime’s numbers are not reliable.
ANALYSIS: Can the World Trust China’s Economic Data?
A man walks in front of a real estate agent's window in Shanghai, on Dec. 4, 2012. Peter Parks/AFP via Getty Images
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China’s economy expanded at a slower-than-expected pace in the third quarter, driven by higher retail sales and growing industrial production. But as financial markets assess the situation in the world’s second-largest economy, some observers are questioning the reliability of the data coming out of Beijing.

In a 2017 paper by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, staff economists opined that China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has “improved its source data and its collection practices,” bolstering the quality of final official statistics.
Andrew Moran
Andrew Moran
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Andrew Moran has been writing about business, economics, and finance for more than a decade. He is the author of "The War on Cash."
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