How fast has Chinese industry grown?
Author InfoRawski, Tom Abstract Data for recent years indicate an acceleration of Chinese industrial growth, from the annual rates of about 10 percent recorded in the quarter century before economic reform to figures approaching 15 percent in the mid- and late 1980s. Evaluating the statistics underlying these reports requires an appraisal of how economic reform has affected the ability of China’s statistical system to measure economic performance. Erroneous information about the rate and pattern of industrial growth could distort measures of productivity change considered to be central indicators of the effectiveness of Chinese industrial reform. The author describes the statistical materials and procedures used to provide information on the growth of industrial output. He investigates sources of bias in the official statistics to indicate, whenever possible, how these biases affected reported output totals, and to appraise the impact of adjustments to reported output growth on measure
