Econsignal Nightlights

{
  "divergence_analysis": {
    "confidence": "Medium",
    "historical_context": "China nightlights diverged significantly from official GDP in 2015-2016 (provincial GDP sums exceeded national total by 10%)",
    "methodology_note": "Nightlights correlate strongly with industrial/manufacturing GDP; services sector (growing share of Chinese economy) has lower light signature",
    "verdict": "Moderate divergence — GDP plausibly in 3.5-5.5% range; official figure within bounds but upper end appears optimistic"
  },
  "investment_implications": "CNY positioning and EM equity exposure should discount to 4-4.5% real growth range rather than headline 5.2%. Manufacturing-facing sectors most at risk of disappointment.",
  "official_gdp": {
    "reported_growth_2022_pct": 3,
    "reported_growth_2023_pct": 5.2,
    "source": "National Bureau of Statistics China"
  },
  "query_summary": {
    "country": "China",
    "iso2": "CN",
    "signal_basis": "VIIRS NOAA-20 nighttime lights composite"
  },
  "satellite_signal": {
    "electricity_consumption_growth_pct": 6.9,
    "electricity_vs_gdp_divergence": "Electricity +6.9% while GDP +5.2% — electricity typically tracks GDP closely; gap suggests mix shift toward services (lower power intensity)",
    "high_activity_regions": [
      "Yangtze River Delta",
      "Pearl River Delta",
      "Chengdu-Chongqing"
    ],
    "low_activity_regions": [
      "Northeast rust belt — Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang showing flat/declining signal"
    ],
    "nightlights_growth_trend": "Consistent with 2-3% real growth in manufacturing belt; lower than official 5.2% in 2023"
  }
}

# bash or zsh: see the payment challenge. Nothing is charged.
curl -sS -g -i 'https://econsignalpulse.theaslangroupllc.com/api/econsignal/nightlights?country=China&iso2=CN&lang=en&period=5y'

# x402 v2 sends the challenge base64-encoded in the PAYMENT-REQUIRED header (v1 sends it in the body).
# To read the header:
curl -sS -g -o /dev/null -D - 'https://econsignalpulse.theaslangroupllc.com/api/econsignal/nightlights?country=China&iso2=CN&lang=en&period=5y' \
  | grep -i '^payment-required:' | cut -d' ' -f2 | tr -d '\r' | base64 --decode

// npm i @x402/fetch @x402/evm viem
import { wrapFetchWithPayment, x402Client } from "@x402/fetch";
import { registerExactEvmScheme } from "@x402/evm/exact/client";
import { privateKeyToAccount } from "viem/accounts";

// Pays at most $0.15 per call.
const client = new x402Client().setSpendControls({ maxAmountPerPayment: "$0.15" });
registerExactEvmScheme(client, { signer: privateKeyToAccount(process.env.EVM_PRIVATE_KEY) });
const pay = wrapFetchWithPayment(fetch, client);

// Not sure it's safe to pay? ToolVet checks it first for $0.005. Pay for that from a separate
// client: this one is capped at $0.15 per payment. GET https://toolvet.app/api/v1/check?url=https%3A%2F%2Feconsignalpulse.theaslangroupllc.com%2Fapi%2Feconsignal%2Fnightlights
const res = await pay("https://econsignalpulse.theaslangroupllc.com/api/econsignal/nightlights?country=China&iso2=CN&lang=en&period=5y");
console.log(res.status, await res.text());

# pip install "x402[requests,evm]"
import os
from eth_account import Account
from x402 import x402ClientSync
from x402.http.clients import x402_requests
from x402.mechanisms.evm import EthAccountSigner
from x402.mechanisms.evm.exact.register import register_exact_evm_client

# Pays at most $0.15 per call.
client = x402ClientSync().set_spend_controls({"max_amount_per_payment": "$0.15"})
register_exact_evm_client(client, EthAccountSigner(Account.from_key(os.environ["EVM_PRIVATE_KEY"])))

with x402_requests(client) as session:
    res = session.get("https://econsignalpulse.theaslangroupllc.com/api/econsignal/nightlights?country=China&iso2=CN&lang=en&period=5y")
    print(res.status_code, res.text)