China recently published data from its "first economic census," and the findings, as rough as they must be in a nation so large and dynamic, are interesting and encouraging, though I can't say I'm surprised:

1) China's economy in 2004 was almost 17 percent larger than previously thought, larger, in fact, than Italy's, putting China in fifth place globally. Growth over the last 10 years was more like 10.5 percent than the previous estimate of 9.5 percent;

2) the service sector is far larger than previously thought, accounting for almost 41 percent of the economy, up from the previous estimate of 32 percent;

3) manufacturing accounts for 46.2 percent of the economy and agriculture for 13.1 percent, both lower than thought; and

4) 93 percent of the additional, previously "unknown" output came from the private sector.

Li Deshui, head statistician and chief of the project, acknowledged large-scale economic data cannot be exact and that some enterprises were found to have been exaggerating numbers, but he believes the new numbers are much better than the old ones.

-Bret Swanson