China Fudging Numbers About Shrinking Economic Growth

Chinas economy is not as hot as it once was. Its till ok, but the country is so large that it needs to create about 10 million new jobs per year just to stave off a revolt. From the looks of it here, the chicoms are not providing those jobs. There are fewer construction projects in beijing, and you can sense the slump. Here is an excerpt about chinas lies regarding economic growth 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 country’s 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. Questions about the quality and accuracy of Chinese economic data are longstanding , but the concerns now being raised are unusual. This year is the first time since 1989 that a sharp economic slowdown has coincided with the once-a-decade changeover in the country’s top leadership . Officials at all levels of government are under pressure to report good economic results to Beijing as they wait for promotions, demotions and transfers to cascade down from Beijing. So narrower and seemingly more obscure measures of economic activity are being falsified, according to the executives and economists. “The government officials don’t want to see the negative,” so they tell power managers to report usage declines as zero change, said a chief executive in the power sector. Story http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international-business/china-releasing-false-data-to-downplay-slowdown/articleshow/14368661.cms