A Chinese government spokesman said he gave “incorrect” and “groundless” investment data sourced from the Internet, underscoring concern at the credibility of official numbers.

April 12, 2013 Leave a comment

China Customs Official Apologizes for Incorrect Data

A Chinese government spokesman said he gave “incorrect” and “groundless” investment data sourced from the Internet at a briefing yesterday, underscoring concern at the credibility of official numbers.

Zheng Yuesheng, spokesman and head of the statistics department at the Beijing-based General Administration of Customs, said in a statement today that he “expresses deep apologies” for citing unconfirmed investment data from online sources he didn’t identify.

Zheng was referring to remarks he made at a customs administration press conference yesterday where he also acknowledged concerns that China’s export data may be overstated. During the briefing, held to discuss March and first-quarter trade figures, Zheng said the National Development and Reform Commission, the nation’s top economic planning agency, had approved about 7 trillion yuan of investment projects in the fourth quarter of 2012, including new roads, railroads and airports.

He gave the figure when discussing the improvement in first-quarter trade to illustrate the recovery in China’s economic growth.

“The information was sourced from relevant reports on the Internet, which were groundless and must be corrected,” Zheng said in a seven-line statement on the agency’s website.China’s exports rose less than forecast for the first time in four months in March while shipments to Hong Kong jumped 92.9 percent, the most in 18 years.

Zheng acknowledged that the practice of false trade declarations exists and said the agency is investigating the issue. At the same time, he stood by the customs administration’s data and said differences between China’s reported exports to Hong Kong and the city’s data for imports from the mainland stem from different statistical methods.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Xin Zhou in Beijing at xzhou68@bloomberg.net

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