- NEWS Desk Global
CHINA GDP DELAY AMPLIFIES ECONOMIC DISTRESS SIGNAL
It’s mid-afternoon Monday in Beijing and a simple question is doing the rounds: will China’s latest GDP figures be published as scheduled the next day? The Chinese customs had unexpectedly not released its trade data on Friday. By 4PM it’s clear that the statistics bureau has followed suit, the only indication being a tweak to the online publication timetable set a year earlier. A day later, there’s still no sign of when the data will land, nor any clear explanation. The delay to this usually well-choreographed and executed quarterly exercise is an aberration. It’s also unnecessary.