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The
National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) found data violations in
2020 and 2021 after conducting inspections in several cities -
Xingtai in Hebei province, Jiaozuo in Henan province, Bijie and
Anshun in Guizhou province, the bureau said in a statement on
its website.
Authorities in Hebei have punished 45 officials in Xingtai after
finding some of its data on industrial output, fixed-asset
investment, wholesale and retail sales were "seriously
inaccurate", it said.
Authorities in Henan have taken disciplinary and organizational
actions against 38 officials for data violations, while Guizhou
has given similar penalties to 22 officials, it said. Such
actions refer to demotions or dismissals.
In March, China's anti-graft watchdog vowed to step up scrutiny
of the country's statistics agency and tackle the "outstanding
problems" of data fraud and falsification.
China's economy has taken a hit from stringent COVID-19
controls, with many private-sector economists expecting gross
domestic product to contract in the April-June quarter.
Premier Li Keqiang said on Wednesday that China will strive to
achieve reasonable economic growth in the second quarter and
stem rising unemployment, after rolling out a raft of supporting
policies.
Li also pledged to ensure local economic indicators in the
second quarter to be published "in accordance with laws and
regulations".
There has long been widespread global scepticism about the
reliability of Chinese data, especially as the government has
sought to ease market expectations of a deepening slowdown in
the world's second-largest economy.
China has set an annual economic growth target of around 5.5%
this year but many economists believe that is now increasingly
out of reach.
(Reporting by Kevin Yao; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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