[Vacets-local-dc] [Chinese economic statistics are bogus. So are Vietnam's]

[Hai Tran]

 Li Deshui, director of the National Bureau of Statistics, has criticized local officials for inflating their gross domestic product (GDP) growth. He noted that GDP figures he received from various provincial governments were 2.66 trillion yuan (US$320 billion) more than the figure his bureau came up with. Accuracy of statisticswww.chinaview.cn 2005-03-16 08:55:27

    BEIJING, Mar. 16 -- An independent data-collecting system open to non-government institutions is needed to improve the accuracy of the country's statistics, said an article in Yanzhao Metropolis Daily. An excerpt follows: 

    Decisions made about the country's economic situation and new macro-control policies should be based on true and accurate statistics. But the current situation with statistics in China is not satisfactory. 

    Li Deshui, director of the National Bureau of Statistics, has criticized local officials for inflating their gross domestic product (GDP) growth. He noted that GDP figures he received from various provincial governments were 2.66 trillion yuan (US$320 billion) more than the figure his bureau came up with. 

    There are three major reasons for these false numbers: technical issues like unscientific statistical methods; improper accounting systems and issues other than statistics, usually intervention from local authorities. 

    The first two problems are relatively easy to solve, but intervention from local officials is hard to deal with, as statistics are still the main yardstick in performance evaluation and promotion of officials. A rather long time is needed to build a scientific system which will accurately evaluate the officials' performance. 

    Now, we need to establish an independent statistical system that is open to non-government organizations. 

    At present local statistics bureaux are the main collector of statistical data. It is hard for them to withstand pressure from local authorities. Therefore vertical management within the statistical system should be stressed in order to improve the independence of the statistics bureaux. 

    Also, opening the statistics market up to the public can break the government's monopoly on statistical information. Once they have entered the market, non-government institutions will have to compete with true and accurate data, and thus encourage government statistics departments to improve their work. 

    The demand for statistical information is on the rise in China. Such information should be open to the whole society. 

    (Source: China Daily)





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