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A Chinese economist said China's official GDP figures may be higher than actual numbers.
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He said China's GDP is likely to grow between 3% and 4% in the next three to five years.
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China faces economic challenges including a real-estate crisis and high youth unemployment.
A prominent Chinese economist just said what many people suspected: China's official GDP numbers may not be accurate.
"We do not know the true number of China's real growth figure and maybe some other numbers," Gao Shanwen, the chief economist at SDIC Securities, said on Thursday.
Many people speculate that "after the pandemic, those numbers may not be so accurate," he said at an event hosted by the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, DC. Gao previously advised the country's policymakers.
Gao said China's GDP probably averaged around 2% in the last two to three years even though the official number is "close to 5%," Gao said.
"If my speculation is correct, I think it might be more reasonable to expect a growth rate between 3% to 4% in the years to come, for the next three to five years," Gao said. "But we know, and I think, the official number will always be around 5%."
China reported 5.2% GDP growth last year and has a growth target of "around 5%" this year — which economists said is ambitious.
While there have been long-standing doubts over the veracity of China's GDP data, one economist explained to Business Insider in 2022 that the headline GDP figure is "systematically inflated" due to how it's calculated and that it's unlikely the central government in Beijing manipulates numbers.
Chinese youth are 'tightening their belts and eating noodles with the lights off'
Gao made headlines recently for his comments at an investor conference about "lifeless" Chinese youths. Chinese censors have since taken the speech off the internet.
In the speech, Gao said his analysis of regional data found that the younger a province's population is, the slower its consumption growth.
China is now "full of vibrant old people, lifeless young people, and middle-aged people in despair," he said.
"Young people are tightening their belts and eating noodles with the lights off," Gao added.
Gao's assessment of China's economy comes as the country struggles to recover from pandemic lockdowns.
The world's second-largest economy is facing multiple issues, including a real-estate crisis, high youth unemployment, and deflation.