COMMIES LIE: China’s Economic and Financial Data Does Not Add Up.

The IMF’s surveillance cycle for China is wrapping up, and at least judging from the press release, China’s balance of payments was not a focus of the conversation.

That is unfortunate.

I, of course, believe that the balance of payments is always central to understanding how any economy is interacting with the rest of the world economy, particularly for an economy whose visible trade surplus now approaches $1 trillion (a percent of world GDP).

But even setting that general point aside, there are a growing set of questions about China’s external data that are of fundamental importance to both China’s economy and the world economy.

Put simply, China’s external numbers just aren’t lining up. And they don’t really add up either. Often, the reported balance of payments is slightly at odds with the underlying source data.

Four discrepancies stand out.

It’s a technical article without any real answers — but lots of interesting questions.