By almost any measure, China’s economy is slowing. Consumers are cautious. Apartments are sitting unsold. Industrial profits are falling, too.

But China’s state media wants people to look at another indicator: men’s underwear.

Sales of boxers and briefs are surging in Liaoning Province, according to The Global Times, a fervently nationalist tabloid controlled by the Communist Party, bringing a bit of good news to a down-and-out part of China’s rust belt that epitomizes many of the country’s economic problems. Cheered by the prospect of a brighter future, the article argued, Liaoning men are upgrading a part of their wardrobe that most of their friends and family will never see.

In highlighting such an unorthodox economic indicator, The Global Times is harking back to a long tradition of eclectic economic indicators, one that the general public and even some economists like to turn to when the usual yardsticks of the dismal science just won’t do.

But in the case of the Liaoning Underwear Index, economists are — to put it lightly — skeptical.

“The only relevant context here,” said Arthur Kroeber, managing director of Gavekal Dragonomics, a research firm, “is that China’s economy is slowing markedly and official media have been ordered to smear the pig with lipstick.”