In 2007, prospective Vice-premier of China Li Keqiang (李克強) privately expressed skepticism over an official economic statistic published quarterly by the Chinese government. Calling macroeconomics mainstay Gross Domestic Product (GDP) artificial and unreliable to an American diplomat, he proposed 3 alternative metrics to measure economic performance: national electricity consumption, nationwide railway freight traffic, and total loans disbursed, which he views as relatively unfalsifiable (The Economist, 2010).
