Wei Jianing, the well-known economist and the Macroeconomic Inspector for the State Council Development Research Center, recently delivered an important speech at the Chinese Finance 40 Forum. Wei mentioned two key challenges that he observed when analyzing the economy. The first was the difficulty in obtaining accurate and correct information. A large number of local statistics have resulted from “discussions” among local Party and government leaders and the local Bureau of Statistics. Their reports to the central government then “matched” the discussed numbers thereby looking official. Wei called for reform to establish an independent system of statistics. The second challenge mentioned in the speech was the transparency of decision making – at least for the currency policies. Currently it is very difficult to find out who is making policy decisions. Wei called for an independent central bank, at least for documenting the decisions and the names of the decision makers. He recommended that the official records be released to the public periodically. The United States Federal Reserve releases these records every five years.
Source: Sohu, November 1, 2016
http://business.sohu.com/20161101/n472057932.shtml