Asia

4Oct By TheGreenZoneNo Comments
Asia, China, Market

Can Xi improve China’s economy as it celebrates its 75th birthday?

As China prepared to celebrate its Golden Week holiday and mark the 75th anniversary of the People’s Republic, the ruling Communist Party rolled out a raft of measures aimed at boosting its ailing economy. The plans included help for the country's crisis-hit property industry, support for the stock market, cash handouts for the poor and more government spending. Shares in mainland China and Hong Kong chalked up record gains after the announcements. But economists warn the policies may not be enough to fix China's economic problems. Some of the measures announced by the People's Bank of China (PBOC) on 24 September took direct aim at the country's beaten-down stock market. The new tools included funding worth 800bn yuan ($114bn; £85.6bn) that can be borrowed by insurers, bro...
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China’s Real Estate Market: An Analysis of the Boom and Bust
1Oct By TheGreenZoneNo Comments
Asia, China, Market

China’s Real Estate Market: An Analysis of the Boom and Bust

China’s property sector is sinking. Once the economic backbone by which hundreds of million Chinese went from poverty to the middle class, the industry is now seeing slumps in the value of real estate that threaten not only household wealth and revenue for local governments, but also the overall growth of the Chinese economy, a key indicator of the Chinese Communist Party’s legitimacy and right to rule.  Behemoth property developers such as Evergrande and Country Garden have gone under. In an attempt to mitigate the fallout, Chinese authorities last week rolled out stimulus measures designed to stabilize the market and to prevent the downward spiral that has seen the value of new homes sold drop by over 23 percent through August 2024.   In the Unit...
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What do Chinese people think of Xi Jinping’s concerns about the economy?
1Oct By TheGreenZoneNo Comments
Asia, China, Market, World

What do Chinese people think of Xi Jinping’s concerns about the economy?

China’s sputtering economy has its worried leaders pulling out all the stops. They have unveiled stimulus measures, offered rare cash handouts, held a surprise meeting to kickstart growth and tried to shake up an ailing property market with a raft of decisions - they did all of this in the last week. On Monday, Xi himself spoke of "potential dangers" and being "well-prepared" to overcome grave challenges, which many believe was a reference to the economy. What is less clear is how the slowdown has affected ordinary Chinese people, whose expectations and frustrations are often heavily censored. But two new pieces of research offer some insight. The first, a survey of Chinese attitudes towards the economy, found that people were growing pessimistic and disillusioned about t...
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China orders banks to begin lowering the interest rates on current mortgages.
30Sep By TheGreenZoneNo Comments
Asia, China, Market

China orders banks to begin lowering the interest rates on current mortgages.

China's central bank has issued a directive for financial institutions to begin reducing interest rates on existing mortgages, marking a pivotal step in the country’s efforts to support its struggling economy. This announcement comes as part of broader measures aimed at stimulating growth amid ongoing economic challenges as detailed in a report by Reuters. The report further stated that, the decision to cut mortgage rates is expected to provide much-needed relief to millions of Chinese homeowners who have been grappling with rising living costs and a sluggish property market. The central bank's instruction is particularly timely, given that many families are facing financial strain due to the economic downturn worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. According to ...
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“Dreadful” ahead: EU businesses alert China of an impending regulatory conflict
28Sep By TheGreenZoneNo Comments
Asia, China, Market

“Dreadful” ahead: EU businesses alert China of an impending regulatory conflict

Europe’s business leaders are warning that a raft of incoming EU legislation will put companies on a direct collision course with laws in China, which could lead to partial “decoupling” of some supply chains. One of the laws bans products made using forced labour and another requires big firms to conduct human rights and environmental audits of their overseas suppliers. Both have been adopted by the European Union but will take effect in 2027 after a three-year grace period. Businesses will be required to prove their suppliers are in line with EU environmental and social standards, and also that there is no forced labour in their supply chains. Companies fear the new rules will put them in the cross hairs of Chinese authorities. The EU Chamber of Commerce in China ...
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Bangladesh’s rapidly diminishing water resources pose a danger to its economic progress.
28Sep By TheGreenZoneNo Comments
Asia, Market

Bangladesh’s rapidly diminishing water resources pose a danger to its economic progress.

Groundwater in the climate-vulnerable country is depleting faster than ever before, according to new research from WaterAid, falling by as much as three meters per year in some places. Consumption is set to reach 55 billion cubic meters per year by 2040, a 37 per cent increase from 2020 levels. Despite the recent political upheaval, Bangladesh has great economic potential, said Jonathan Farr, director at WaterAid’s Resilient Water Accelerator. “It has a very skilled, highly educated population,” he said, but too much of the country’s growth is fueled by increasing demand for water, in particular for rice cultivation and industries such as textiles.  Climate change is an added risk. Bangladesh experiences flooding from a web of tributaries feeding into the Ganges river, saline intrusion...
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Copper Breaks $10,000 Due to US Economic Strength and China Stimulus
28Sep By TheGreenZoneNo Comments
Asia, China, Market

Copper Breaks $10,000 Due to US Economic Strength and China Stimulus

(Bloomberg) -- Copper rallied back above $10,000 a ton and iron ore broke through $100 after China’s top leaders stepped up efforts to revive economic growth for the world’s largest metals consumer. The price of copper rose more than 2% to a three-month high on the London Metal Exchange after the official Xinhua News Agency reported that China’s Politburo will push for the real estate market “to stop declining” and called for “forceful” rate cuts. That followed a Bloomberg report that China is considering a $142 billion capital injection into the biggest state banks. “They’re trying to restore confidence in their economy,” said Michael Cuoco, head of metals at StoneX Financial Inc. “They’re sending a message to their populace that they understand that there are problems and hardship...
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China boosts markets by promising to provide further economic help.
27Sep By TheGreenZoneNo Comments
Asia, China, Market

China boosts markets by promising to provide further economic help.

China’s leaders have vowed to intensify fiscal support for the world’s second-largest economy, fuelling markets with hopes of more intervention just days after the central bank announced the biggest monetary stimulus since the pandemic. The politburo, led by President Xi Jinping, pledged on Thursday to “issue and use” government bonds to better implement “the driving role of government investment”, in comments that come as analysts warn that China is in danger of missing its official economic growth target this year. The politburo usually does not hold economic sessions in September, suggesting “an increased sense of urgency” about growing deflationary pressures, Morgan Stanley analysts said. But they said China’s government did not yet appear to have reached a “whatever it takes” moment ...
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Anti-China EV Laws Won’t Keep America Safe Indefinitely
26Sep By TheGreenZoneNo Comments
Asia, China, USA, World

Anti-China EV Laws Won’t Keep America Safe Indefinitely

You may look at the auto industry's current chaos in Europe and think that those problems won't come to America. That this country is now taking aggressive steps to protect its auto market with 100% tariffs on Chinese-made EVs or a software ban that will effectively prohibit those cars from being sold here entirely. From that, you may think that it's all problem solved—the U.S. keeps new players from China out for good. But the truth is that these protectionist measures are temporary at best, and even the auto industry seems to get it. Or at least, the smart folks in the business do.  That leads off this midweek edition of Critical Materials, our morning roundup of tech and industry news. Also on tap today: Hyundai's online sales program with ...
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Through negotiations on minimum EV pricing, China and the EU want to avert a trade war.
26Sep By TheGreenZoneNo Comments
Asia, China, Market

Through negotiations on minimum EV pricing, China and the EU want to avert a trade war.

BERLIN — Brussels and Beijing are engaged in intense 11th-hour negotiations on Chinese electric-vehicle subsidies, raising hopes in Germany that EU duties — and a wider trade war — can still be avoided, officials familiar with the talks said. The discussions are an attempt to solve an ongoing dispute over Beijing’s subsidies for Made-in-China EVs, which the EU says are artificially lowering prices and making it impossible for its own industry to compete. Under discussion is the idea of setting voluntary minimum prices that would offset the market-distorting Chinese subsidies, thereby rendering the planned EU duties moot. One official described the concept as a “surcharge“ that would balance out the Chinese state aid. A meeting between Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao an...
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