Follow the Debate - China Economic News June 2012
Kaixin no longer publishes the Journal - Economic China
Economic China
You can scan the News over time and see it evolve and change
'The expansion of these gigantic cities has been fast, disruptive and unprecedented in world history. It has also been accompanied by rapid price increases. But they have occurred primarily in the first-tier cities. Markets cannot easily price what they have never witnessed before.'
One message is clear: The Chinese government wants to foster a national transformation from "world's factory" to "world's market."
China has been reforming itself, a process known as "crossing the river by feeling the stones." The unprecedented experience, plus the country's scale, leaves the outside world uncertain of its future.
Caixin Online 30/6/2012
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- In the past decade China gained Western jobs and exports markets, but the loss of both means that serious systemic flaws are being laid bare
Caixin Online 28/6/2012
- Bad Loan Problem Spreading across Country, Banker Says
- Guangdong and Inner Mongolia can be added to the list of places witnessing a surge in NPLs
Caixin Online 23/6/2012
- In Search of Stability
- Guangdong is trying to move away from the usual harsh tactics used to calm unrest, but critics say these efforts will fail without the rule of law
- Associated Press
Almost half of all global executives polled believe that the technology innovation center of the world will move from Silicon Valley to another country in the next four years according to a survey published Wednesday.
KPMG’s global Tech Innovation Survey 2012 found 43 percent of respondents said Silicon Valley’s crown would be passed elsewhere by 2016. China was named as the country most likely to be the next innovation centre (45%), followed by India (21%) and Japan (9%) and Korea (9%).
Global Times 28/6/2012
China Daily 28/6/2012
Wen urges enhanced cooperation
Beijing has proposed forming a China-Latin America cooperation forum and both sides should strive to increase trade to $400 billion within 5 years.
Firms set up aid alliance in Europe
An alliance of private-sector companies will establish offices in Europe to aid and advise other Chinese companies investing in the continent.
The New York Times 26/6/2012
Brazil and China Sign Trade Agreements
The deals come as Brazil is pressing China to buy more of its manufactured products as part of a broader effort to reduce its dependence on sales of raw materials.
Chinese Data Said to Be Manipulated, Understating Slowdown
Corporate executives and economists say officials in some Chinese cities and provinces are falsifying statistics to mask the extent of the downturn in the nation’s economy.
The Wall Street Journal 23/6/2012
- Shutterstock.com
Chinese demand for gold isn’t letting up following a strong first quarter that saw demand reach record levels from Asia’s biggest economy, offsetting weakening appetite in India.
“It does seem that China is picking up the slack in the system from a weaker India,” said Ross Norman, chief executive of London-based bullion broker Sharps Pixley.
Chinese imports of the yellow metal from Hong Kong were 65% higher in April than the month before, the third monthly increase in a row according to data compiled by Commerzbank, citing the Census and Statistics Department of Hong Kong.
For the past few years, some of the top economic minds in academia and government have been fretting over the same question: How to get Chinese consumers to spend more?
- Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Experts both in China and elsewhere agree that China’s economy is dangerously imbalanced, and that what the country needs to rebalance its economy is a major increase in domestic consumption.
In the U.S., credit card companies helped create the middle class and the culture of consumerism. Decades ago, Americans, scarred by the memories of the Depression, were big savers. But the baby boom generation, free of the scars of the Depression – and lured by the why-wait, buy-now culture fostered by credit cards — went on buying binges.
In China, the equivalent of the baby boom is the “post ’80 kids’’ – meaning the generation born after the deprivations of the cultural revolution. They are ready to buy more, but they don’t have the means.
China, U.S. Sign $3.4 Billion in Deals
Companies from China and the U.S. signed total of $3.4 billion in contracts for bilateral investment projects.
China Daily 23/6/2012
US woos Chinese investment amid slump
Investment contracts worth 3.4 billion US dollars were signed by enterprises from both China and the US.
People's Daily 23/6/2012
China still major investment destination for MNC
The amount of foreign capitals is decreasing. How should we look on China's foreign capital use? The reporter interviewed an official from MOC.
Caixin Online 21/6/2012
- Private Investment in Natural Resource Sector Encouraged
- For first time, the Ministry of Land and Resources opens oil and gas to outside capital
The Wall Street Journal 21/6/2012
China Manufacturing Slows
A preliminary gauge of Chinese manufacturing activity fell in June, HSBC said. The reading could stoke market concerns of a sharp slowdown.
China Is Opening Its Market Gates
The proposal marks the latest effort to liberalize the country's financial sector.
People's Daily 21/6/2012
China to relax QFII rules to attract investment
The New york Times 19/6/2012
Putting China's Economic Power in Perspective
People in the developed world are more likely to say that China is the world's leading economic power, whereas people in the developing world -- and the Chinese -- are more likely to say the United States is.
China Daily 19/6/2012
BRICS mulls bailout fundThe BRICS countries are considering setting up a foreign-exchange reserve pool.
People's Dailly 19/6/2012
China's economy turns for better: Official
Caixin Online 15/6/2012
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- Policy reforms, especially those aimed at benefiting small businesses, can give the country a boost that more stimulus cannot
The New York Times 15/6/2012
Putting China's Economic Power in Perspective
People in the developed world are more likely to say that China is the world's leading economic power, whereas people in the developing world -- and the Chinese -- are more likely to say the United States is.
China Daily 12/6/2012
Outsource of labor tightened in China
The Chinese government has issued new regulations for the management of foreign labor service enterprises to protect workers sent overseas.
The Wall Street Journal 12/6/2012
Beijing Finds a Path to Liberalizing Rates
China's has moved to reform its creaking system of government-set interest rates, providing a shot in the arm for an ailing economy and signaling a major shift in its financial system.
China’s leaders have fired the opening salvo in what might turn out to be the battle of the banks.
Late last week, in parallel with an interest rate cut to boost growth, China’s central bank moved to allow the market a greater role in setting lending and deposit rates – kicking off a long awaited reform of China’s creaking financial sector and threatening to eat away the main source of banks’ profitability.
What’s the problem with the old approach to setting interest rates, and what’s at stake in reform? China Real Time lays it out with a little help from The Wall Street Journal’s chart wizards in Hong Kong.
Asia Times Online 8/6/2012
- Central Bank Cuts Interest Rates
- The lending rate cut was widely anticipated by analysts on weaker economic conditions
The Wall Street Journal 8/6/2012
China Slowdown: Making the Cut
In China, the government normally has to make a trade-off between growth and reform. With Thursday's interest-rate cut, it has made a decent stab at pursuing both.
China’s central bank on Thursday lowered benchmark interest rates on loans and deposits, and moved to allow rates to float more freely, in a bid to support economic growth and advance reform of the financial system.
The surprise move could ease concerns about a slowdown in China’s economy, the world’s second largest, at a time investor confidence has been strained by a deepening debt crisis in the euro zone and signs the U.S. recovery is fading.
China Daily 8/6/2012
China to boost imports with tariff cuts
China will adjust trade tariffs and provide fiscal support to boost imports while the world economy is undergoing a "complicated" restructuring.
Rates cut to tackle slowing growth
The central bank cut interest rates for the first time since December 2008 to stabilize growth and prevent the economy from slowing further.
People's Daily 8/6/2012
China announces first rate cut since 2008
CCTV 7/6/2012
People's Daily 7/6/2012
People's Daily 5/6/2012
China offers $10 billion SCO loan
Chinese President Hu Jintao has promised that China will offer a loan of $10 billion to support economic cooperation within SCO. 
SCO outlines strategy
Global Times 5/6/2012
Global Times 1/6/2012
People's Daily 1/6/2012
ODI growth rates set to increase sharply
The Wall Street Journal 1/6/2012
Slowdown in Asia Sounds Warning
Manufacturing activity in China and across a wide swath of Asia slowed in May, heightening fears that the turmoil in Western economies is dragging down one of the few remaining engines of global growth.
China’s official Purchasing Managers Index, a measure of manufacturing activity, took a dive in May, falling to 50.4 from 53.3 in April. The fall was steeper than projections from nine of out 10 economists in a Dow Jones Newswires poll and comes amid concerns over slowing growth in the world’s second-largest economy. (A reading above 50 indicates an expansion in manufacturing activity, while a reading below 50 indicates contraction.) Analysts weigh in: The aggressive pullback in May’s PMI has once again confirmed that the economy is close to stalling. Following the release of dismal April output and investment data, the slide in PMI comes as little surprise. Even though still nowhere close to the collapse seen in the second half of 2008, the pace of drop—down by 2.9 points—was the sharpest since mid-2010. This indicates significant downside risk in the economy… – Xianfang Ren and Alistair Thornton, IHS Global Insight
More after the jump…
- Associated Press
Shift happens.
Faced with a raft of less-than-stellar statistics, China’s policymakers are changing gears, placing the emphasis firmly on growth. Evidence of the shift, which initially lifted spirits on stock markets in Japan and Hong Kong this week, has been welcomed around the world. It evoked memories of late 2008 and early 2009, when a massive Chinese stimulus program helped keep the global economy from sliding completely off the rails in the wake of the U.S. subprime lending crisis.
The question now: Will it be enough?
Caixin Online 31/5/2012
- Closer Look: Pursuing a Less Exciting Stimulus
- The government is taking steps to address slower economic growth, but don't expect the freewheeling spending of previous years
The New York Times 31/5/2012
In China, a New Round of Stimulus
Spooked by a slowing economy, leaders have begun opening the financial spigots, but they are signaling that the spending will fall short of levels during the global downturn.
The Wall Street Journal 31/5/2012
Greek Tragedy Not Achilles' Heel for China
The Wall street Journal 30/5/2012
China Buys Up Spain's Assets
Spanish construction firm ACS became the latest European company to unload assets onto eager Chinese buyers, as Europe's debt woes force firms to look to China for cash.
