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China’s Mysterious Investment Statistics

Though the accuracy of China’s official GDP and growth rates has long been a hotly debated topic, few have been challenging the credibility of its official investment statistics. But here, too, there is plenty of reason for doubt.

SHANGHAI – The accuracy of China’s official GDP and growth rates has long been a hotly debated topic, with the detention in January of Wang Baoan, the director of the country’s National Bureau of Statistics, on graft charges intensifying doubts about the agency’s integrity. Yet, somehow, China’s official investment statistics have largely escaped discussion.

According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), fixed-capital formation (the net increase in fixed assets) has averaged about 46% of GDP in recent years. That is much higher than the global average of around 22%; yet it is also significantly lower than the average of the figures provided by China’s provinces. In 2012, for example, nearly half of the provinces reported GDP shares for capital formation of more than 60%; six exceeded 80%.

One would assume that the national capital-formation figures are based on local reports – not least because, until recent reforms, the NBS was not collecting data independently. Moreover, the basic NBS investment figures – that is, total fixed-asset investment, from which fixed capital formation is derived – reflect the total of the provincial figures.

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