U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to fire the federal government’s lead statistician after a disappointing jobs report spurred warnings over the potential fallout if the country’s economic data—considered the gold standard in measurement—can no longer be trusted. There are other examples of countries with unreliable and politicized economic data—and some point to China as a cautionary tale.
Officially, China’s economy grew by 5% last year, according to the country’s National Bureau of Statistics. Some independent estimates, like those of Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, match China’s official figure. Other estimates are significantly lower, like the 2.8% GDP growth calculated by the Rhodium Group, a China-focused research firm.
