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A study of lights at night suggests dictators lie about economic growth (2022)
(www.economist.com)
Of course they do. Another thing to keep in mind is that in dictatorships the lies start at the bottom. Since people know they can be punished for not meeting quotas or for making the country look bad they will lie. Instead of saying they produced 10 tons of rice per hectare they say they produced 12. The lie may seem small but when everyone is doing it the results compound and at the top level the reports become useless. It's how you get famines while the data the government presents shows that they are producing a surplus.
It's a mess and data from these countries should never be taken at face value and should always be independently checked.