To the surprise of absolutely no one, China’s second-quarter economic growth came in at 6.2% on the year, down from 6.4% a quarter before—exactly as nearly every economist had predicted. Other numbers released Monday matter more. It is a running joke among China watchers that forecasting headline growth is the easiest job in economics, since the figure nearly always dovetails with official targets. Analysts widely believe that headline growth is smoothed at best and heavily inflated at worst.

Source: Wall Street Journal July 15, 2019 10:07 UTC