China's GDP Growth Pace Was Inflated for Nine Years, Study Finds

no not china, no way!

It has been no secret that any numbers from china needs to taken with a grain salt.

Not surprising at all, the government is uncannily accurate in their prediction (growth will be 6.9% this year, at the end of the year: hey look, we did it!). Kind of like how almost every province usually has a 4.0% unemployment rate.

That isn't to say China's GDP hasn't been growing, just that the numbers are always being fudged one way or the other. They used to even fudge the numbers down (growth higher than reported) to prevent the appearance of overheating.

It is ironic that Li Keqiang is premiere (#2) but Xi Jinping has decided not to use his index (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Keqiang_index) that gets around fudging with more accurate statistics.

Honestly, is this news? I have always been advised (and believed) that Chinese GDP growth figures were unreliable, consistently matching the desired government goal for growth.

Unfortunately, this is a cultural issue with China. Anyone who has had any involvement with academia or research, where cheating is easily detectable, has known this.

Is anyone surprised? The government in China has to manage for image internally to their population. I am not saying this is bad, it is just the trap the current government is in. They have of move to a non export driven economy. The cost of building in kit in China has just climbed. Low end manufacturing has been moving out for years. China still has a wealth gap issue they are trying to manage. This means they have to move to a domestic spending driven economy as fast as they can.