Analysts divided over reliability of China data as growth flags

Beijing

AS once-stellar growth rates start to dip, watchers of China's mammoth economy worry that it could be worse than it looks because the official figures might not be telling the whole story.

But amid mistrust of government numbers, economists are divided over what other measurements they can use.

Official growth figures last year were the slowest in nearly a quarter of a century, and dropped to 7 per cent in the first half of this year - suspiciously close to government predictions.

However, there is an emerging consensus among economists that real growth in China…