Comment on "A slowing Chinese economy" (China Daily, March 10)

The writer has a very simplistic outlook on China's economy. There is a lot more involved in the "slowing down of the Chinese economy" than what has been discussed.

Inflation is one of the reasons why the economy is slowing down. The official inflation rate is far lower than the one "felt" on the ground in Beijing. A reduced GDP is expected to deal with that.

There are two camps among China's economic planners. The old camp wants to focus on GDP growth as a measure to promote the country's overall economy, while the new one wants to see growth being measured in something more accurate. So far the GDP-oriented view has prevailed, and the continuously rising GDP is proof of that.

But the way Chinese economists calculate the national GDP is wrong, because they rely on figures supplied by the local governments, which often are inaccurate.

A lot of many people think that high GDP numbers are something to be proud of. But it's meaningless for low-income groups who face difficult problems in every walk of life and now have been hit the hardest by the high inflation.

The government is obliged to pay greater attention to such people.

HMM on China Daily

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(China Daily 03/16/2011 page9)