Thursday, May 28, 2009

While we're not looking

On January 30, this cute administration gushed over what it called a better-than-expected economic growth as gleaned from its own official statistics. The government’s economic managers claimed the results were  "respectable" compared to its Asian peers. The 4th quarter growth of 4.5% exceeded official estimates of 3.6-4.4%, pulling up the full-year result to 4.6% where the target range was 4.1-4.8%.

But wait, while we were not looking, the government has revised downward the economic expansion it proudly screamed, with officials saying they "overestimated" economic numbers. Now they say the gross domestic product in the 4th quarter was only at 2.9%, from 4.5% that they originally announced. Because of this downward revision, growth in 2008 was ony at 3.8%, much lower than 4.6% growth originally reported.

They trumpeted the 4.5% in the headlines. Expect the lower 2.9% to be buried deep inside the business pages. I wonder how they will spin it.

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