Authorities hope to ease doubts about data reliability
China announced on Thursday that it will adopt the IMF's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS), marking significant progress for the nation's macroeconomic data.
With the approval from the State Council, China's cabinet, the People's Bank of China (PBC) Governor Zhou Xiaochuan formally informed IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde on Tuesday of the decision, the PBC said in a statement posted on its website on Thursday.
The PBC, the central bank, said that the adoption of the SDDS is necessary for China's further reform and opening-up, which can improve the transparency, credibility and international comparability of the nation's macroeconomic data.
The move will provide a timely and accurate basis for the government's economic policymaking and improve China's participation in global economic cooperation, it said.
The IMF welcomed the move, saying in a statement released on Wednesday that "participation in the SDDS is expected to enhance a country's availability of timely and comprehensive statistics and contribute to the pursuit of sound macroeconomic policies."
On Wednesday, PBC Deputy Governor Yi Gang said China and the IMF have been working together to improve China's statistics for many years, and subscribing to the SDDS is another milestone in the collaboration.
"The adoption of the SDDS can play a part in promoting the internationalization of the yuan," Xu Gao, chief economist at China Everbright Securities Co, told the Global Times on Thursday.
The move "will prompt China to improve statistical transparency so that other economies and international investors can have a better understanding of China's economic reality and more faith in China," Xu noted.
Shao Yu, chief economist at Orient Securities Co, agreed.
"China's official macroeconomic data statistics will be more convincing to the international community," Shao told the Global Times Thursday.
In Xu's view, the adoption of the SDDS benefits China above all.
"China's policymakers can get a better picture of the real economy based on more accurate statistics," Xu said.
There have been many doubts among international investors and foreign media about the accuracy of China's economic growth statistics, with many saying that the true figures were lower than the official data indicated.
The National Bureau of Statistics said on July 15 that GDP rose 7 percent year-on-year in the first half and China has the ability to achieve its full-year growth target of around 7 percent.
A surprisingly sharp devaluation of the yuan in August, which rocked global markets, increased skepticism about China's real economic situation, with some critics alleging the move was intended to boost exports.
The National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planner, on September 23 defended the credibility of the GDP figures, saying the doubts were not based on "strict and sound research".
The IMF forecast in its latest report released Tuesday that China's economy will grow 6.8 percent this year and 6.3 percent in 2016, respectively.
"China (adopted the SDDS) to bring itself more in line with international standards," Xu said.
China since 2002 had used the General Data Dissemination System, another IMF statistical standard, which was established in 1997.
Both standards have a broadly consistent framework. But the SDDS has higher requirements for the data coverage, periodicity, timeliness, quality and public access, according to the PBC's statement.
