A senior economist with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Friday that China's officially published national accounts have been greatly improved by progressive reforms over the past 25 years.

The remark was made by Nishnu Pant, assistant chief economist of the Manila-based ADB, during a speech delivered to mark the release of a ADB report designed to advise China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on how to collect statistics concerning the service sector.

China's rapid economic growth in recent years has ignited heated disputes over the accuracy of China's official statistics.

Pant said a recent ADB survey on the country's industrial and service sectors, however, do not support allegations by some economists that China's estimates of domestic gross product (GDP) growth have been exaggerated.

The output and growth of the service sector could have been underestimated in the official statistics, said Pant.

He said the country is gradually improving its weaknesses in collecting statistics of the service sector, as the NBS and its local departments have stepped up efforts in this field.

Pant advised the country's national and local statistics collectors to set up a scientific sampling survey system covering all types of enterprises in the service sector, including incorporated companies and individually-owned businesses.

Pant said a recent pilot survey in Beijing under the supervision of ADB indicated that statistics from the country's service sector could be improved, and the pilot survey already marked an important step of NBS towards data collection according to international practice.

"There is still a gap between China and developed countries in terms of the accuracy of the national accounts," said Peng Zhilong, an NBS senior official, "we will keep improving the estimation of our national economy, making it up to the international standard."

The ADB is currently helping China improve NBS's statistics collection of the service sector, as invited by the Chinese government.

(Xinhua News Agency September 22, 2007)