Chinese Stats May Hide Slowdown

As the Chinese economy struggles, evidence is mounting that some local bureaucrats may be fudging the numbers. Executives in the country’s power industry told The New York Times that regional bean counters have been reluctant to report accurate totals of coal used in the country’s power plants to mask a drop in electricity consumption. China’s National Bureau of Statistics, which collects data on the country’s economy, said such claims are “not rooted in evidence.” But executives in China’s slipping industries differ, with one power-sector leader saying that “the government officials don’t want to see the negative.”