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Bloomberg
China’s central government plans steps that will reduce the influence local governments have on economic statistics, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The National Bureau of Statistics will move its teams out of joint offices they share with regional counterparts around the country and shift into separate facilities, said the person, who asked not to be identified because they aren’t authorized to speak publicly. The plans also call for NBS staff to establish their own Communist Party committees and have independent channels for reporting data from the provinces back to Beijing, the person said.
The NBS didn’t respond to a fax sent Monday seeking comment on the measures. The aim is to improve the nation’s official economic statistics, which have been dogged by disconnects. One example: the sum of provincial output by the country’s 31 regions regularly exceeds the published national gross domestic product figure. Ning Jizhe, a close adviser to Premier Li Keqiang appointed as NBS chief in February, has called for improved tracking of the economy, including better measures of new industries and business models.
Ning also serves as deputy chairman of the country’s top planning body, the National Development and Reform Commission, giving him greater influence to ensure the execution of his policies. He holds additional sway as Communist Party chief for the statistics bureau, a sprawling bureaucracy of approximately 20,000 people.
Longstanding doubts over the veracity of China’s economic data could be a roadblock as the nation seeks to lure global investors to its bond markets and currency. It may also lead to bad policy outcomes. President Xi Jinping and other leaders in October called for independent investigations to ensure the accuracy, completeness and timeliness of statistics.
Skepticism about China’s numbers was exacerbated last week as the state-run People’s Daily reported Liaoning province faked fiscal revenue and other economic statistics from 2011 to 2014.