The Problem With China's GDP Estimates

In China, there is a very real incentive for all levels of government to pick figures that present a more positive image. If those points of bias data get passed up the ranks to be aggregated into national figures, the errors can compound on one another and produce net results that are off in a big way. The problem this creates for a country like China is that a large portion of its economy is still very informal. In advanced economies with very formalised financial systems, the government agencies in charge of producing economic figures can use data collected by other agencies.