China Audit Finds Provinces Faked Data and Borrowed Illegally
- Fiscal revenues inflated, building sales faked to boost income
- Xi had ordered data fraud ‘throttled’ after string of scandals
Chongqing, China.
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China found some local governments inflated revenue levels and raised debt illegally in a nationwide audit, a setback for Beijing in its bid to boost the credibility of economic data after a run of scandals.
Ten cities, counties or districts in the Yunnan, Hunan and Jilin provinces, as well as the southwestern city of Chongqing, inflated fiscal revenues by 1.55 billion yuan ($234 million), the National Audit Office said in a statement on its website dated Dec. 8.