How to measure China’s true economic growth

When Li Keqiang, China’s prime minister, gave his final speech at the National People’s Congress on March 5th, it was already clear who would succeed him. But a successor has yet to be found for the “Li Keqiang index”. This unofficial proxy for China’s economic growth was inspired by a leaked conversation between Mr Li, when he was party secretary for the province of Liaoning, and an American diplomat. Mr Li confessed that the province’s gdp figures were “unreliable”. Instead, he focused on electricity consumption, rail cargo and bank lending. Taking our cue from Mr Li, this newspaper thought it would be fun to see what the three indicators, bundled into a single index, revealed about China’s economy at a national level.