China's economic statistics are now abundant and fairly reliable by developing country standards. However, there are still a number of pitfalls that can make it difficult to use Chinese data. Chinese data are often presented in categories that are idiosyncratic or misleadingly labeled. Even worse is that categories are sometimes revised, and data series are published without adequate warning that coverage has changed. Under these conditions, straightforward use of the data can sometimes be misleading. An even more common experience is to find that abundant data are available, but that they are organized into categories that are not very informative. This appendix is provided to highlight some of the limitations to the data, and to explain to the reader the adjustments to the data which have been made in order to achieve consistency and make the data more informative. In general, the quality of data is improving, but sometimes rapid growth and economic change overwhelms the statisticians at the State Statistical Bureau (SSB). More recently, the SSB has had to cope with significant competition from the private sector for their most competent statisticians, and this may have on occasion affected the quality of statistics.

National income

Chinese statisticians organized national income data into the socialist system of “net material product” (NMP) until the mid-1980s. As is well known, NMP calculations are less desirable than GNP because they do not account for all current income streams.