China Plans Overhaul For GDP Measurement System
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China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) is set to revise the method it uses to calculate the national GDP, in order to bring it in line with global standards, reported Reuters on Monday.
The new system, if implemented, will come online by the end of 2014 at the earliest, said NBS’s vice head Xu Xianchun; and would see China’s accounting measures adhere more closely to the 2008 United Nations system of national accounts.
China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) is set to revise the method it uses to calculate the national GDP, in order to bring it in line with global standards, reported Reuters on Monday.
The new system, if implemented, will come online by the end of 2014 at the earliest, said NBS’s vice head Xu Xianchun; and would see China’s accounting measures adhere more closely to the 2008 United Nations system of national accounts.
The country’s current version dates back to 1993 and has often been criticised as unreliable and “man-made.”
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Among the proposed changes include measuring spending on research and development as a form of fixed capital, while the NBS would also add new indicators such as farmer income from the sale of land use rights and revisions in the way it calculates the contribution from housing.
Officials didn’t specify how much the new calculations might change China’s headline numbers, or whether it is likely to speed up or slow growth rates. The statistics bureau will announce gross-domestic-product estimates using the new method along with revised historical data, the statement said.
According to the Wall Street Journal, authorities have already begun the new calculations in some parts of the country on a trial basis. When completed, the NBS is likely to announce the GDP estimates using the new method along with revised historical data, WSJ said.
The Chinese economy was estimated at $8.52 trillion in 2012. It grew 7.7% in the first nine months of 2013, compared with the period in 2012.
The proposed revisions by the statistics bureau are part of an effort to implement reform guidelines unveiled at the Communist Party meeting, which ended last week.
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