Newsweek (July 30)Newsweek (July 30)
China’s official quarterly statistics are assembled with breakneck speed. Provinces submit their records to the National Bureau of Statistics in just two weeks, approximately three times faster than the norm in developed countries. The figures usually come quite close to matching official targets because regional “officials have massive incentives to tell Beijing what it wants to hear as regards hitting central targets—whether it be breakneck growth or an engineered slowdown.” Over subsequent years, the statistics are typically revised as more accurate data become available. Yet inaccurate quarterly statistics diminish the capacity “to effectively govern such a vast country.”
China’s official quarterly statistics are assembled with breakneck speed. Provinces submit their records to the National Bureau of Statistics in just two weeks, approximately three times faster than the norm in developed countries. The figures usually come quite close to matching official targets because regional “officials have massive incentives to tell Beijing what it wants to hear as regards hitting central targets—whether it be breakneck growth or an engineered slowdown.” Over subsequent years, the statistics are typically revised as more accurate data become available. Yet inaccurate quarterly statistics diminish the capacity “to effectively govern such a vast country.”
Tags: China, Statistics
