Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.2, 2013

 

Accurately Understanding the Income, Consumption and Investment in China

(Abstract)

 

Xu Xianchun

 

This study examines the differences between the residents’ disposable income in the fund flow statement and that in the household survey, between the residents’ consumption in expenditure-based GDP and that in the household survey, and between the gross fixed capital formation in expenditure-based GDP and the total investment in fixed assets in statistics, in terms of basic concepts, use, scope, source of materials, computational methods and data presentation. Our study reveals that the data on residents’ income and consumption in the household survey have been undervalued, whereas the data on total investment in fixed assets in statistics have been overvalued. However, they have not immediately affected the accurate assessment of great economic structures such as the distribution structure of Chinese people’s disposable income among residents, enterprises and the government, and the final demand structure.