Shock GDP delay shows politics trump economy

Opaque structure: People walk along a street surrounded by shopping malls in Shanghai. Questions about the predictability and transparency of information in the world’s second-largest economy have been raised following the deferral of crucial data release. — AFP

BEIJING: During a week when investors are scrutinising every utterance by officials in Beijing, the government’s unprecedented silence on key economic indicators is one of the clearest signs yet that the zero-Covid policy and politics trump all else in Xi Jinping’s China.

The government postponed the release of several major economic reports in the past week, including gross domestic product (GDP) figures, without providing a reason for the delay or a new release time.