Bulletin on Reforming China 's GDP Accounting and Data Release System

National Bureau of Statistics of China 2017-01-12 16:32 Print| Large| Medium| Small

 National Bureau of Statistics of China

January 9, 2017

 

With the continuous deepening of China's statistical reform, the gross domestic product (GDP) accounting basis and accounting methods continue to be improved and perfected. In order to better serve the macro decision-making and adapt to the needs of society, to avoid the inconvenience caused to users by multiple data revisions, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) decided to streamline the current GDP accounting and data release system, adjust the current three steps, namely, preliminary accounting, preliminary verification and final verification, to two steps, namely, preliminary accounting and final verification, and release data as required.

 

I. The Necessity of Reform

 

According to China's current GDP accounting and data release system, annual and quarterly GDP accounting consist of three steps: preliminary accounting, preliminary verification and final verification. Preliminary verification is the revision of preliminary accounting data, and final verification is the revision of preliminary verification data. Implemented for more than a decade, this system has played an important role in normalizing China's GDP accounting.

 

In recent years, the NBS has devoted great efforts to promoting statistical reform, and has established the online reporting system of integrated questionnaire for enterprises above designated size, reformed the statistical system of service industry, established and improved the sample survey system of small and micro enterprises. The basic statistics on which GDP accounting is based have been constantly enriched. At the same time, the NBS has actively adopted international standards of national accounts, and accounting methods have been gradually improved, the accuracy of GDP preliminary accounting has been increased constantly. Considering the practical work, the gap between the number of preliminary verification and the number of preliminary accounting is small, moreover, in the years when economic censuses are carried out or accounting methods change significantly, GDP is usually not verified preliminarily, but is directly verified finally, as a consequence, the practical significance of preliminary verification is reduced. In addition, due to the short time interval between preliminary verification and final verification, multiple GDP data revisions has caused inconvenience to users, and some users have made suggestions for improvement. In view of the above reasons, it is necessary to reform China's current GDP accounting and data release system.

 

II. The Main Content of Reform

 

1. Reform annual GDP accounting and data release procedures

 

Cancel annual GDP preliminary verification. After the reform, annual GDP accounting includes two steps: preliminary accounting and final verification. Preliminary accounting data will be released on January 20 next year at the Annual Press Conference on Economic Situation and in the national statistical database (http://data.stats.gov.cn/); final verification data will be released in the following January as bulletins.

 

2. Reform quarterly GDP accounting and data release procedures

 

Cancel quarterly GDP preliminary verification. After the reform, quarterly GDP accounting includes two steps: preliminary accounting and final verification. Preliminary accounting data will be released about 15 days after the season at the Quarterly Press Conference on Economic Situation and in the national statistical database; final verification data will be released in the following January in the national statistical database.

 

In addition to the above accounting procedures, after carrying out national economic census and having found new basic information that has a great impact on GDP data, or with accounting methods and classification criteria changing, the historical annual GDP data will be revised accordingly, as well as the historical quarterly GDP data.

 

The reformed GDP accounting and data release system shall be implemented from the date of this bulletin issued. If any previous regulations related to GDP accounting and data release procedures are inconsistent with this bulletin, this one shall prevail.