The Real Problem with Those Gini Numbers

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) recently released China's Gini coefficient figures, which are a measure of income inequality, for the years 2003 to 2012.

The official reading has been over 0.47 for the last decade. The number peaked at 0.491 in 2008, and dropped to 0.474 in 2012. (The index runs from 0, total equality, to 1, or total inequality.)