BEIJING – China, the world’s second-largest economy, announced without explanation on Monday that it was indefinitely delaying the release of economic data scheduled for Tuesday morning. , which includes closely watched figures for economic growth from July to September, were expected to show a consistently lackluster performance.
The delay by China’s National Bureau of Statistics comes as the country’s rulers have gathered in Beijing for a week, national congress twice a decade of the Communist Party. Authorities have take complex measures to prevent any disruption to the assembly process, from suspending virtually all travel into Beijing to requiring de facto regular Covid-19 tests across the country. country.
Major countries rarely delay the release of even one economic statistic for fear of hurting financial confidence, much less the series of market-moving data that China’s National Bureau of Statistics has now delayed. . In addition to postponing the release of gross domestic product data for the third quarter, the government agency also postponed the release of September data for retail sales, industrial production, fixed asset investment and other categories. .
George Magnus, former chief economist, said: “I have never had a situation where the entire statistical report has just been postponed, in the nearly half-century of overseeing the release of data – not even during the period of time. outbreaks and conflicts. of UBS is currently an associate at the China Center at the University of Oxford.
Zhao Chenxin, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, took on an upbeat tone about China’s economy during a news conference Monday morning at the party congress’s media center.
“Judging from the current situation, the economy recovered significantly in the third quarter – from a global perspective, China’s economic performance remains outstanding,” he said.
After closing trading on China’s stock exchanges on Monday afternoon, the National Bureau of Statistics canceled its quarterly press conference, which had been scheduled for Tuesday morning, and updated the schedule for the online data release. route to show multiple categories as “delayed”.
Another agency, the General Department of Customs, separately failed last Friday to follow its own schedule for releasing September import and export statistics. The release of those numbers has also been delayed indefinitely.
The delay comes as Chinese officials are trying to refute growing criticism from foreign economists and multinational corporations that China now puts politics and ideology above results. economic performance. Zhao said on Monday morning that due to the government’s anti-pandemic policies and focus on economic development, “China’s economic stability and improvement will be further consolidated.”
Western economists had predicted that China would announce on Tuesday morning that its economy grew slightly more than 3% in the third quarter year-on-year. That would be better than the development of only 0.4 percent in the second quarter, when the two-month pandemic lockdown in Shanghai severely reduced the output of many industries.
But it is still far below Beijing’s target, set in March last year, that growth this year would be “about 5.5%”.
As China has grown to become the world’s largest producer and a trading power, and home to some of the world’s largest banks, China has repeatedly grappled with how to structure its financial system. Communist Party-dominated government communicates with financial markets.
For example, China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China, stated with almost no explanation in August 2015 that devaluation of the country’s currency, the yuan, up nearly 2%. The move is intended to be a technical measure involving the inclusion of the renminbi in the International Monetary Fund’s reserve currency system.
But the sudden move contributed significantly to the panic in financial markets in China and abroad that lasted until next winter, sending stock prices down in China and prompting investors to move. hundreds of billions of dollars out of the country.
