Data reportedly signals China's economic slowdown might be worse than Beijing suggests

Apple cutting sales projections due to weaker-than-expected sales in China exacerbated some analysts' fears that the economic slowdown there is even worse than previously suspected.

The tech company announced Wednesday that it would be cutting its sales projections, saying that it "did not foresee the magnitude of the economic deceleration, particularly in China." This was a rare occurrence for Apple, and it came as auto sales in China also fell in 2018 for the first time in about two decades, as CNBC reports.

The Washington Post reports that observers of the Chinese economy are warning that the situation "might be worse than many appreciate," noting that the official GDP numbers the government puts out are usually "murky at best and fudged at worst." Officially, China says its GDP is consistently growing at a rate of about 6 percent per year, but one analyst told the Post that it "looks truly like some sixth grader got out their ruler and drew a straight line with a slight downward slant" and that the numbers reported from the government are "totally unrealistic."

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Indeed, a recent report from the American Enterprise Institute refers to the National Bureau of Statistics of China as "a propaganda arm of the Community Party," also observing that "China has consistently made clear" that "its figures are manipulated." So what might the real GDP growth rate be if not 6 percent a year? Well, Richard Harris writes for The South China Morning Post that "there are verbal reports of Chinese academics calculating China’s 2018 economic growth at as low as 1.5 per cent."

Regardless of what the number is, one investment banking and securities company, The New York Times reports, warned in an ominous report this week that when it comes to China's economic slowdown, "the worst is yet to come."