I read a while back that local governments would significantly artificially inflate their manufacturing, construction, spending, and raw materials numbers. There were dozens that seemed so far fetched they were easily spotted as fake by a professor that did little research.

When you have govt officials who are forced to increase growth and you'll look bad/fired if you don't and no authority is safeguarding this, then these actions seem fairly logical.

Interesting to see how perception is sometimes as good as reality.