Farewell to GDP as only performance indicator

THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF STATISTICS will centralize the checking and computation of the gross domestic product of provincial-level regions this year, and halt the conventional practice of ranking the regions in terms of GDP size and GDP growth rate. Beijing News comments:

The bureau unveiled a reform plan for the move in 2017, and started checking and calculating the GDP of Shaanxi, Zhejiang and Hubei provinces in 2018 as a pilot project to prepare for popularizing the practice nationwide.

Experience shows that it has not been uncommon for local governments to doctor their statistics in a bid to beautify their GDP reports to the central authority.