Economics
China’s 2015 GDP Was Exaggerated By Fake Data, Analysis Shows
- Growth probably slowed markedly, Bloomberg Economics says
- Provinces look to have overstated data between 2011 to 2015
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China’s growth rate in 2015 was probably overstated by “a couple of percentage points,” according to new data analysis by Bloomberg Economics.
Gross domestic product at the provincial level was consistently overstated between 2011 and 2015, calculations that cross-referenced energy consumption with output data show. But the exaggeration appears to have shrunk in 2016 as a method of inflating fiscal revenues was closed off. The national GDP number was probably overstated in 2015 as well, according to the research by Bloomberg economists Tom Orlik and Qian Wan.