There’s no doubt that China is currently preoccupied with domestic politics ahead of its 19th party congress. But, as Stratfor’s Fourth-Quarter forecast points out, China’s long-term focus is really on preserving economic and social stability. Beijing’s amendments to how it accounts for GDP show that, despite all the political fervor, China is still working toward its broader economic goals. In the past, China has been criticized for the poor quality of its official economic statistics, but the country is on a quest to modernize and improve its economic data collection and calculation standards. For its Oct. 19 quarterly release of data — including gross domestic product — China’s National Bureau of Statistics will once again adjust the way it handles research and development expenditures. Under the new methodology, the statistics bureau will include R&D expenditures after previously counting them as intermediate capital deductions. The changes will boost China’s GDP […]