Liaoning lies expose woes of collecting financial data
Print Edition
A Chinese official has admitted his province falsified its economic data for years, as the country prepares to release its national growth estimates for 2016.
GDP figures are a closely watched measure of economic growth in China, which affect financial decisions around the globe.
Speaking at a legislative meeting yesterday, Liaoning’s Governor Chen Qiufa admitted that from 2011 to 2014, economic data from cities and counties under the province’s jurisdiction had been plagued with false statistics.
In 2014, Xinhua news service reported a central government inspection group had warned Liaoning about the “prevalence of economic data fraud.”
The province is in China’s “rust belt,” home to state-owned enterprises in the coal and steel sector, which have long battled against inefficiency and overcapacity, becoming a prime target of China’s economic reform plans as the government tries to shore up slowing growth.
Chen’s statement comes as China prepares to release its report tomorrow on economic growth in 2016. It was a rare admission of a systemic problem that plagues China’s economic data reporting.
One of the problems has been that local bureaucrats’ promotions are tied to economic performance, giving them an incentive to falsify data in hopes of improving their chances of career advancement.
In December, the director of China’s National Bureau of Statistics accused local officials of “falsifying” economic statistics and warned that offenders would be severely punished.
“GDP inflation has become like a chronic disease — it’s not unique to Liaoning alone,” wrote Xinhua, but even so the province’s sins were “comparatively serious.”
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