Several local officials in China's Northeast region admitted they had faked economic data in the past few years to show high growth when the real numbers were much lower, the China Daily website reported, citing  the state-owned Xinhua News Agency.

"If the past data had not been inflated, the current growth figures would not show such a precipitous fall," one official was quoted as saying.

Officials in the region acknowledged they had overstated data ranging from fiscal revenue and household income to GDP, according to the report.

Liaoning province's GDP growth was reported at 9.5 percent three years ago and its current figure is 2.7 percent. Jilin's growth was reported at 12 percent three years ago, but its current rate is 6.3 percent in the same period.

Meanwhile, China's yuan continued to tumble Friday after the People's Bank of China announced it would move away from its peg of the yuan to the U.S. dollar and instead measure it against a basket of currencies of its major trading partners to better reflect market realities.

The government sets the rate daily on the yuan, also known as the renminbi, which is currently trading within a two percent margin against the dollar, the AFP news agency reported.

"The bilateral renminbi-U.S. dollar exchange rate is not considered a good indicator of the international parity of tradable goods," the bank said in a note on its website.