From Chinese Press

Whole less than the sum

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-29 08:22

The sum of China's provinces GDPs far exceeds the national figure. Such ugly errors will leave a negative impact on national development, says an article in Yangcheng Evening News. Excerpts:

A serious error was detected after provincial governments released their GDP figures: Their sum total was far greater than the national figure issued by the National Bureau of Statistics.

This is not the first time such a gross error has occurred. It has happened so many times that many people simply take it as a joke. Deficiencies in statistical measures may be to blame for the errors, but the present evaluation system of officials, which focuses on GDP data, is an important reason for such errors. In a sense, such "over prosperity" in GDP is more than a joke. The most direct and important result of such errors would be the loss the public trust in official data.

And this trust can be won back only by making the process of arriving at GDP figures transparent and improving supervision in officials' evaluation.

(China Daily 04/29/2010 page9)