""Some of the volume data, such as power and rail freight and even (bank) credit, are interesting because there is less incentive to massage them at the local level. But they reveal only part of the truth, not the entire truth," he said.

"This would be a useful measure for steel and cement production. I'm not sure how well it would measure retail sales.""

This is what one Chinese official uses to get a better sense of the economy rather than relying on massaged numbers. It's still far from perfect obviously, but I find it interesting.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-wikileaks-id...