BEIJING, March 5 (Xinhua) -- China's statistics chief Friday admitted the method and system of calculating property prices had problems and he promised new measures to correct them.
The pledge came from Ma Jiantang, director of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in a seminar attended by government officials, experts on property market and real estate developers.
The NBS 2009 National Economic and Social Development Statistics Bulletin, issued on Feb. 25, said housing prices in China's 70 major cities rose 1.5 percent in 2009 from 2008 figures.
Since the release, the figure, less than a quarter of the average rise in the previous four years, and the lowest level for nine years, has been widely questioned by the media and public.
"Problems do exist in the calculation method of housing prices," Ma said, while denying allegations that the data were cooked up to please the government and real estate developers.
"We will seriously reflect upon the public criticisms and take effective measures to improve our work," he said, but "there was no selfish motivation in the calculation."
The 1.5 percent figure might not fully reflect price fluctuations from month to month because it was the average level over 12 months, he said.
Due to staff shortages, housing price data mainly stemmed from reports by real estate developers, said Ma, who cited Beijing as an example where only one or two officials were responsible for collecting data from hundreds of real estate companies.
"Under the circumstance, we have to rely on the employees of property companies after giving them short-term training," Ma said. "And some of the employees lack professionalism and a sense of responsibility."
