Ten months after the PRC's State Statistical Bureau (SSB) published -for the first time in two decades - a reasonably comprehensive set of national economic data (XINHUA, 27 June 1979), these were amended, up-dated and supplemented in an even fuller statement, issued by the SSB at the end of April (and early in May) 1980 and covering the results of the national plan for 1979. As on the previous occasion, most of the items published were given in such a way as to facilitate comparisons with the information available for the year prior to the first plan (1952) and the year in which it was completed (1957). Whilst the data for the early years fall short in part, particularly in the agricultural sector, of being perfect, the years 1952 and 1957 nevertheless serve as useful landmarks on China's long, and often winding, path from the past to the present. Thus the China-watcher now has a dossier of economic and social data from official sources against which he can check his own estimates and those made - in the absence of official statistical documentation - by various national and international agencies concerning themselves with the successes and shortcomings of the PRC since its inception in 1949. Where he is not satisfied with the newly published information, he must, of course, reserve the right to ask questions even where no answer may be given for some time to come.