Did China's economy grow 5 percent last year like authorities stated? An expert on China’s economy is casting doubt.
“There's no way you can have such a high rate of growth and also huge unemployment,” said Frank Xie, the John M. Olin Palmetto Chair in Business at the University of South Carolina Aiken. “When you grow your economy, you have to hire people, so you cannot have a high growth rate while still having a high unemployment.”
Chinese authorities say its unemployment rate last year hovered over 5 percent. However, youth unemployment in the country has been around 20 percent since the COVID-19 pandemic. -- 📺 Watch NTD News 24/7 on cable, broadcast, and streaming: https://www.ntd.com/watch
Did China's economy grow 5% last year like authorities stated? An expert on China's economy is casting doubt.
There's no way you can have such a high rate of growth and also a huge unemployment.
Chinese authorities say its unemployment rate last year hovered over 5%.
However, youth unemployment in the country have been around 20% since the COVID-19 pandemic.
When you grow your economy, you have higher people.
So you cannot have a high growth rate while still having a high unemployment.
A recent report from Rhodium Group estimates China's actual GDP last year is below 3%, well below the official figure.
The report says China has been facing deflation for 10 consecutive quarters.
And since no economy has ever posted 5% GDP growth during years of deflation, they're doubting China achieved this.
Xie noted the Chinese regime also has a record of manipulating economic data.
I think they have their own numbers. The true numbers, they might have that, but they won't release that.
In China, local officials usually manipulate data to get promotions since it's linked to their political achievement.
Concerns over data manipulation grew so severe that the head of China's National Statistics Bureau pledged to crack down on it four years ago.
That agency is responsible for estimating China's GDP.
But questioning Beijing's official GDP data in public also comes with its own consequences.
That's what Chinese economist Gao Xunwen did over a year ago at a panel in Washington.
Gao speculated that the real number on average might be around 2% instead of the officially announced 5%.
One month later, Gao was no longer the chief economist at a Hong Kong security firm.
He disappeared from the public eye for almost a year.
The Wall Street Journal said Chinese leader Xi Jinping reportedly asked authorities to discipline Gao.
