Posted on 06/23/2012 8:20:20 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
June 22, 2012
Chinese Data Mask Depth of Slowdown, Executives Say
By KEITH BRADSHER
HONG KONG As the Chinese economy continues to sputter, prominent corporate executives in China and Western economists say there is evidence that local and provincial officials are falsifying economic statistics to disguise the true depth of the troubles.
Record-setting mountains of excess coal have accumulated at the countrys biggest storage areas because power plants are burning less coal in the face of tumbling electricity demand. But local and provincial government officials have forced plant managers not to report to Beijing the full extent of the slowdown, power sector executives said.
Electricity production and consumption have been considered a telltale sign of a wide variety of economic activity. They are widely viewed by foreign investors and even some Chinese officials as the gold standard for measuring what is really happening in the countrys economy, because the gathering and reporting of data in China is not considered as reliable as it is in many countries.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Turn on air-conditioners all day to boost power consumption.
Too much money spent on American debt?
Too much donation to Dem Party.
Would be interesting to see just one set of reports from all countries - including the U.S. - that contain true figures. I do find it interesting that so much Chinese money is coming into the U.S. not only in real estate but also into the energy sector.
Deception, corruption and collectivism are all strands in the same rope.
LOL!
But local and provincial government officials have forced plant managers not to report to Beijing the full extent of the slowdown, power sector executives said.
Darn that liberal American media. Wait, what?
the gathering and reporting of data in China is not considered as reliable as it is in many countries.
Hmmmmmmm.......I seem to remember hearing something like this recently. LOL!
I was expecting something bad, based upon the headline, that would foretell a GDP of 4% of something horrific. 9.6% Ind Prod miss on a 9.9% expected? I will take that any day. Gotta tell ya tho' - the clean air here definitely means that industrial production is way way down. Could be they are working shifts. 14 days on, shutter it for 14, repeat. The clean air, then a week of smog, then the clean air, would support that. I have had old timers (50+) tell me that they have never seen the skies so blue. In their lifetimes.
http://tickerforum.org/cgi-ticker/akcs-www?post=207076
Interesting reading. Thanks for the link to the other forum.
Never really believed the “Cheerleaders for the ChiComs” who kept praising PR China every time they sucked another few $$ out of the US. ChiCom wealth always seemed to be artificial....and “cheap”. I mean, who talks about “Chinese Quality”.
Now, all those loans PR China made..they will never get them paid back in full. They can only hope foreigners still buy their low quality products
This is absolutely true. A friend of mine lives and works in Shanghai as an analyst for an IB. He said that they have to come up with very creative ways to get economic data. They’re always looking for an angle. He said that they watch energy usage, but that that might be rigged as well.
Two other friends are American college professors teaching in China. One teaches accounting and the other English. They are utterly shocked at the level of cheating and how obnoxious the students are about it. Chinese professors simply look the other way and cannot believe that either of them get so upset. The parents aren’t mad that their children cheated, only that they got caught.
During the Cold War, it is pretty obvious that the CIA and other Western analysts badly missed the level of Soviet economic activity. When the Wall came down and the Soviet Union imploded, most were shocked.
One would think/hope that we would have ways today to better-gauge industrial and economic activity. It’s hard to hide coal trains into power plants, for instance. That would be a much better measure than an old-timer’s subjective statements on air cleanliness.
There is a way to gauge economic output in China. Tens of thousands of expats live there and see economic conditions first hand.
That is the big difference between the situation with Russia prior to the wall coming down and China today.
I’m not disagreeing with your position that there should be a better way to gauge economic activity. I would suggest, though, that reports from news media outlets are among the least reliable.
OK, I’ve had my cup of coffee now, agreed with you sortof and now taking my disjointed thoughts to the office.
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