A Chinese province has admitted to inflating its fiscal income by up to 23 per cent

OFFICIALS seeking to advance their careers have allegedly inflated Chinese fiscal figures, casting fresh doubt on the health of the country’s economy.

CHINESE economic figures have been inflated by as much as 23 per cent as allegedly corrupt officials sought to advance their careers.

According to the South China Morning Post, considered China’s ‘rust belt’, Liaoning province, confirmed fears that some of its economic figures, including fiscal revenue, were fictionally boosted.

The revelation throws new doubt onto the accuracy of China’s economic data days out from the release of the country’s full-year growth report. Both country and city governments were involved in the alleged fraud between 2011 and 2014 in the northwest region.

Officials in Liaoning province have been accused of falsifying economic data. Picture: AP

State-run media, People’s Daily said income was inflated by as much as 23 per cent.

“Many cities and counties in Liaoning reported fraudulent economic figures,” governor Chen Qiufa told the provincial legislature, citing a document from the National Audit Office.

“The fake fiscal figures influenced the central government’s economic judgment and accordingly led to a lowering of the size of transfer payments to the province.”

Chen also said the data was invented because officials were craving career advancement.

The region subsequently recorded a double digit decline in government income in 2015.

Economic data in China northeast Liaoning province has been falsely inflated by as much as 23 per cent. Picture: AP

The fake data also meant that local residents were hit with a greater tax burden in the region.

Falsifying figures was a widespread practice in China, Beijing Institute of Technology economics professor Hu Xingdou said.

“It’s good that Liaoning has admitted to it but that won’t be enough to solve it fundamentally,” Hu told the South China Morning Post.

The Chinese government itself appears to accept there are errors in the reporting of economic data. Last year the chief of the country’s National Bureau of Statistics issued a warning about the falsification of data in People’s Daily.

The development comes after a United Nations report said Asia’s economic outlook for 2017 is strong despite slowing global growth due to sluggish international trade and investment.

The world economy grew 2.2 percent in 2016, the slowest pace since the end of the 2008 financial crisis.

“Most economies in East Asia and South Asia, led by China and India, saw robust growth driven by strong expansion of domestic demand,” the report said.

China's President Xi Jinping after his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Picture: AP

China is making progress in shifting from export-oriented growth to tapping domestic demand, the report said. It estimated the Chinese economy grew 6.6 percent in 2016, despite a 6.8 percent contraction in exports for the year, as reported by the government.

Services are growing in importance in China, says Sompob Manarangsan, an economics professor at Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University. “There’s still quite some room for China to further develop by using their own domestic demand,” he said.

US Presdient-elect Donald Trump has railed against existing free-trade agreements and threatened to impose punitive tariffs on some imports at a time when Asian economies have been gradually committing to wider opening of their own markets.

Sompob said China looked set to counter protectionist moves, given its stake in global trade.

“You see Xi Jingping, the president of China, going to join Davos to show how much he supports the market-based economy,” Sompob said, referring to an annual World Economic Forum gathering of global political and economic leaders being held in Switzerland this week. “China from now on is going to perform against what Donald Trump is going to do.”