Chinese Exports Figures Skewed Due To Fake Data

China’s data distortions will muddy analysis of the nation’s trade until at least June, making it harder for analysts to assess the strength of the world’s biggest exporter and second-largest economy.

That’s when China will provide figures that compare with what Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc economist Louis Kuijs says are “pretty clean” numbers from May 2013 that followed a crackdown on inflated invoices used to disguise capital inflows. Government data yesterday that showed March exports unexpectedly fell 6.6 percent from a year earlier marked the peak of distortions, RBS said.

China’s reluctance to revise figures it’s acknowledged were inflated has left the job of explaining why the trade numbers are better than they appear to analysts like Kuijs, as the nation endures its worst economic slowdown since the global financial crisis. The distortions add to investor and analyst concerns that the quality of data from jobs to gross domestic product isn’t good enough for a country that’s driving commodity prices and Asian growth.

Bloomberg

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