China proposes to improve its statistical analysis and
monitoring system used to ascertain the country's international
payments, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said
Tuesday on its website. .
Li Dongrong, SAFE's deputy chief said the move was designed to
make their statistics more accurate and reliable for macroeconomic
analysis and decision-making purposes.
SAFE is also trying to collect additional data by conducting
more surveys and exchanging information with other relevant
departments, Li told a symposium held at Dalian, a coastal city in
northeast China's Liaoning Province.
He said SAFE continued to improve its method of compiling
international payment statistics in order to make the figures more
accurate and transparent.
Since China's entry into the World Trade Organization the flow
of international capital had become more frequent and complicated
requiring greater accuracy and efficiency in reporting
statistics.
Since last year SAFE has published semi-annual reports on
China's balance of international payments. In May this year it
published the first report on the balance of China's overseas
investments.
However, Li said SAFE was facing increasing challenges as a
result of China's ever expanding and evolving economic relations
with the rest of the world. He said overseas capital had engaged
with the Chinese economy in more complicated and flexible
forms.
This year two issues had drawn wide public concern over China's
international payments statistics system. One was the
billion-dollar difference between SAFE's figures on foreign
investment in China in 2005 and statistics produced by the Ministry
of Commerce. The other was the embarrassing lack of authentic
figures on foreign capital entering the country's property market
amid calls for the imposition of tighter controls.
Attendees to the Dalian conference included experts from the
International Monetary Fund, the Bank for International
Settlements, SAFE, the People's Bank of China and the Ministry of
Commerce.
(Xinhua News Agency July 5, 2006)
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