*It seems yet another conspiracy theory has become conspiracy fact thanks to a Chinese whistleblower*. While the shrodinger-like nature of Chinese data has been keeping the market guessing for the last few years, the disconnects between hard-data (e.g. electricity production) and government-supplied surveys have been, at times, ridiculous (leaving aside the un-manipulated craziness of arbitrage-driven trade data). As the WSJ's China Real-time reports, in an unusual move, the National Bureau of Statistics – clearly frustrated with the lies, damn lies – has *recently outed a local government it says was involved in a particularly egregious case of number fudging*, providing rare insight into just how we’re being deceived.
Via China Real-Time Report,
...
Figures on everything from inflation and industrial output to energy consumption and international trade often *don’t seem to gel with observation* and sometimes struggle to stack up when compared with other indicators.
How the figures are massaged and by whom is as much a secret as the real data itself. But in an unusual move, the National Bureau of Statistics – clearly frustrated with the lies, damn lies – has *recently outed a local government it says was involved in a particularly egregious case of number fudging*, providing rare insight into just how we’re being deceived.
...
According to a statement on the statistics bureau’s website dated June 14 (in Chinese), *the economic development and technology information bureau of Henglan, a town in southern China’s Guangdong province, massively overstated the gross industrial output of large firms in the area*.
...
An investigation by the state statistician into a sample of *73 out of a total 249 firms counted in the data found that 38 were too small to be counted as large firms* and so shouldn’t have been included, and a *further 19 had either stopped production*, moved out of the town or otherwise ceased to exit.
The statement said that 71 companies surveyed by the statistics bureau had industrial output of 2.22 billion yuan ($362 million) in 2012 in total, but that the local government recorded it as being 8.51 billion, *almost four times as much as the actual figure*.
The data was *supposed to be contributed by the firms themselves* using an online platform. Instead, *employees of the Henglan economic development bureau entered the figures* themselves from their office, the statement said.
...
*The National Bureau of Statistics said that it pursued the Henglan case on a tip from a whistleblower.* How widespread the problem is elsewhere in the country is anyone’s guess.
Reported by Zero Hedge 2 hours ago.
Via China Real-Time Report,
...
Figures on everything from inflation and industrial output to energy consumption and international trade often *don’t seem to gel with observation* and sometimes struggle to stack up when compared with other indicators.
How the figures are massaged and by whom is as much a secret as the real data itself. But in an unusual move, the National Bureau of Statistics – clearly frustrated with the lies, damn lies – has *recently outed a local government it says was involved in a particularly egregious case of number fudging*, providing rare insight into just how we’re being deceived.
...
According to a statement on the statistics bureau’s website dated June 14 (in Chinese), *the economic development and technology information bureau of Henglan, a town in southern China’s Guangdong province, massively overstated the gross industrial output of large firms in the area*.
...
An investigation by the state statistician into a sample of *73 out of a total 249 firms counted in the data found that 38 were too small to be counted as large firms* and so shouldn’t have been included, and a *further 19 had either stopped production*, moved out of the town or otherwise ceased to exit.
The statement said that 71 companies surveyed by the statistics bureau had industrial output of 2.22 billion yuan ($362 million) in 2012 in total, but that the local government recorded it as being 8.51 billion, *almost four times as much as the actual figure*.
The data was *supposed to be contributed by the firms themselves* using an online platform. Instead, *employees of the Henglan economic development bureau entered the figures* themselves from their office, the statement said.
...
*The National Bureau of Statistics said that it pursued the Henglan case on a tip from a whistleblower.* How widespread the problem is elsewhere in the country is anyone’s guess.
Reported by Zero Hedge 2 hours ago.