Confusing data on house prices

The conflicting house price statistics provided by different government offices point to the urgent need to select authentic data and improve inter-department communications, says an article in the website of Xinhua News Agency. The following is an excerpt:

Residents in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, have been quite puzzled recently by the different government statistics on the house price levels in the city.

Statistics provided by the Guangzhou municipal real estate management bureau shows that the city's average house price in September is 8,244 yuan ($1,200) per sq m, down 14.9 percent year-on-year and 9.2 percent month-on-month.