China’s new youth jobless rate does little to quell scepticism about economic data

BEIJING – China has

resumed reporting youth unemployment figures

in its monthly published economic data using a new methodology, after abruptly withdrawing the jobless rate months ago.

The numbers announced in January appear to be significantly better than the previous release, but have done little to quell scepticism about the reliability of Chinese statistics, as well as the health of the country’s economy.