Redundancy

Since the posting schedule will again be infrequent as I wind down my trip, here is another graphic from SCMP.

I'd not have plotted both time series because the trends appeared to be the same.  Having both allows the reader to infer that price levels have been relatively stable so that value growth tracked volume growth but a separate line chart showing price levels would have made this point with greater impact.

Reference: "Growth in retail sales tipped to slow", South China Morning Post, Jan 4 2006.

Drawing clear lines

Still traveling but look what I found: a clear, impactful line chart showing how exploding local (provincial) spending in China could become a huge liability in the future.  The designer chose a long time line (20 years) and the right chart depicts wonderfully how the finances in the provinces rapidly deteriorated from 1993 onwards.  The labeling of the axes is also sensible.

 Reference: "Regions' spending out of control as Beijing deludes itself", South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), Jan 4 2006.