China to publish unified GDP data in fraud crackdown

China's National Bureau of Statistics will take over data collection at the regional level from 2019, a government official said, replacing the current system in which the combined economic output of China's provinces has long exceeded national output measured by the NBS.

National Bureau of Statistics Deputy Head Li Xiaochao said on Monday there had been significant improvement in the long-standing discrepancy between national and regional GDP data.

The government had stepped up inspections of potentially fraudulent data and was working towards unifying the accounting systems used by national and local authorities.

“The problem of discrepancy between regional and national GDP data has significantly improved, but (the gap) is still large,” Li said in an interview with China Information News that was published on the statistics bureau's website on Monday.

“This situation is not conducive to accurately understanding regional economic trends, scientifically implementing macroeconomic controls, and impacts the credibility of government statistics,” Li said.