HMM: China Admits 2016 GDP Was “Miscalculated” After “Routine Verification.”

According to SCMP, China’s economic figures for 2016 were revised lower by 54.2 billion yuan (US$8.34 billion) to 74.36 trillion yuan following a “miscalculation” revealed after a routine verification of the numbers, the National Statistics Bureau said on Friday.

While the amendment was not large enough to affect the earlier reported year-on-year growth rate of 6.7% for the world’s second-largest economy, the bureau said in a statement, the truth is that nobody knows – and certainly nobody can verify – any numbers coming out of China where there already are glaring discrepancies between GDP data reported at the province and national levels.

You can’t trust numbers from Beijing, especially now that growth has slowed but the regime must continue to purchase its own legitimacy.