AN investigation is needed to find out why the port and foreign trade
figures do not match, says Ministry of Commerce researcher Li Jian, who
has been joined by other experts who say China's trade statistics are
too be good to be true.
The Ministry of Commerce has started an inquiry into abnormal trade
figures, reported Xinhua, allegedly the result of shifting the same
goods repeatedly back and forth between Hong Kong and the mainland to
enhance Chinese trade figures.
This news comes after the China Securities Journal and the Wall Street
Journal have published stories suggesting China's trade figures have
been falsified after provincial governments put pressure on municipal
authorities to come up with better numbers.
Mr Li noted that China's foreign trade value increased 13.4 per cent
year on year to CNY6.12 trillion (US$946.67 billion) in the first
quarter. Export value also recorded a strong growth of 18.4 per cent to
CNY3.2 trillion. But port figures did not do as well with foreign trade
cargo throughput that rose only 9.1 per cent to 804 million tonnes, 4.2
per cent slower year on year.
Mr Li is not satisfied by the explanation provided by China Customs over the wide gap between mainland's figures of exports to Hong Kong and
Hong Kong's own statistics. The underlying reasons are still to be
discovered, he said.
Joining in his suspicions is Cao Zhongxi, consultant for China Ports and Harbours Association, who said that port and foreign trade figures
usually match each other. So the situation in the first quarter needs
thorough study, he said.
Wang Qianjin, an analyst from China's biggest textile industry website
www.webtex.cn , said that port figures are hard to falsify. So the
gloomy port figures in the first quarter have truly reflected the
depression in the export business. High trade figures might result from
repeated export and import of one single exporter's goods to Hong Kong.
Mr Wang said, for the garment and textile industry, performance is
expected to be better this year than the last. But a growth of 20 per
cent like the figures show will be difficult to meet any time of the
year. He said the trade figures might be falsified.
However, some industry insiders said that it is common that exporters
quote a low price for their imported materials for processing and a high price for exported products in order to get higher tax rebate
MARKETS
22 April 2013 - 20:03
Experts: China's Q1 trade statistics show signs of falsification
AN investigation is needed to find out why the port and foreign trade figures do not match, says Ministry of Commerce researcher Li Jian.
MARKETS
22 April 2013 - 20:03
Experts: China's Q1 trade statistics show signs of falsification
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