China

The latest Chinese economic data was underwhelming, so the government may need to stay late to work on a better solution. What does this mean? China’s economy is used to making the world jealous: the country overtook Italy, France, the UK, Germany and Japan’s economies between 2000 and 2010, and it’s held the silver spot behind the US ever since. So it’s understandable that after building up quite the reputation, the Chinese government is less than delighted about the economy’s current pause. November’s data showed that the manufacturing sector was even quieter than the month before, as tentative shoppers – conscious of the economy’s shaky ground – held back from ordering anything they didn’t actually need. And with the services sector also clocking in lower...

Had Deng Xiaoping not sought and received advice from Japan and Singapore in his creation of ‘socialism with Japanese and Singaporean characteristics’, China’s economic miracle would have been less miraculous. China’s current economic woes stem largely from Xi Jinping’s abandonment of this paradigm. When Mao Zedong died in 1976, China was the second poorest among 140 countries. Deng Xiaoping proclaimed a remedy of ‘reform and opening up’ to foreign countries, drawing from previous Asian success stories. During an October 1978 trip to Japan, Deng met with business leaders, toured a Nissan auto plant and saw China’s future. ‘We are a backward country, and we need to learn from Japan’, he told a press conference in Tokyo. His first official foreign economic advisor was Saburo Okita, on...

A gauge of non-manufacturing activity — which measures the construction and services sectors — unexpectedly eased to 50.2, barely clearing the 50 mark above which indicates expansion. An underlying measure of services activity fell to 49.3, the first contraction for that gauge this year. Activity in China’s manufacturing and services sectors shrank in November, adding to expectations for additional government support for the economic recovery as it struggles to regain steam. The official manufacturing purchasing managers index fell to 49.4, the second straight month of contraction, according to a Thursday statement from the National Bureau of Statistics. While economists expected a decline in the index, the number was lower than estimates. A gauge of non-manufacturing activity — whi...

China President Xi Jinping visited Shanghai, where he went to several venues and learned about the city's efforts to strengthen its competitiveness as an international financial centre, Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday. Xi made the trip on Tuesday and Wednesday and he inspected the Shanghai Futures Exchange, an exhibition on Shanghai's sci-tech innovations and a government-subsidized rental housing community, the report said. He was seen with other government leaders, including Cai Qi, the head of the powerful Secretariat of the Communist Party of China Central Committee that oversees day-to-day affairs of the CPC. Vice Premier He Lifeng, Shanghai's Communist party secretary Chen Jining and Mayor Gong Zheng also accompanied his visit. A video posted by state television...

Chinese stock investors are ploughing money into exchange-traded funds (ETFs) this year at the fastest pace on record as they choose to play a languid stock market passively and wait for it to trough. The trend has also caught on as active fund managers in China struggle to make money and as Beijing uses ETFs to support stock markets and channel funding into strategic sectors such as technology and green energy. ETFs, which are funds that typically track an index, have garnered more than 400 billion yuan ($55.97 billion) this year in what would be record annual net inflows, according to mutual fund house China Asset Management Co (ChinaAMC), which has the biggest market share in the products. "When the market falls, many investors would use ETFs to bet on a bottom," said Xu Meng,...

The magnitude of the discrepancy in the India-China official trade numbers as per data sets released separately by New Delhi and Beijing has widened further this year, amid rising instances of under-invoicing and potentially higher losses to the Indian exchequer despite efforts by tax authorities to plug loopholes. The disparity between official figures on exports to India released by China and the imports from China reported by India jumped over 20 percent to $15.47 billion during the first 10 months of 2023, as against $12.75 billion in the corresponding period last year. Under-invoicing of imported goods involves marking the stated value of imports below the actual value paid to the foreign exporter, thereby reducing the import tax outgo. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry in ...

Top Chinese government departments led by the central bank said on Monday that measures needed to be stepped up to strengthen financial support for private companies, including unblocking and sustaining of funding channels. State agencies have in recent months unveiled a flurry of initiatives to support private businesses after authorities vowed to make the sector "bigger, better and stronger", in a bid to shore up an economic recovery. Private firms, which account for 60% of China's gross domestic product and 80% of urban jobs, were hurt by three years of COVID curbs and a regulatory crackdown that targeted sectors from technology to private tutoring. Efforts should be made to "unblock" financial channels such as loans, bonds and shares, said the People's Bank of China (PBOC) in...

Asia-Pacific stocks fell on Monday as the Chinese market dropped due to a decline in property firms, while Japan’s service inflation surged to a 45-month high. Data showed Japan’s service PPI rose 2.3% in October to its highest level since January 2020 and more than the prior month’s reading of 2%. On Monday, China’s industrial profits continued to shrink in November, but at its slowest pace in almost a year, according to data released by the government. The world’s second largest economy will release its official factory activity figures for November on Thursday, while the Caixin survey for the same metric will be out on Friday. Australia will release its October inflation figures on Wednesday, which will offer clues to its central bank’s policy moves. India’s gross domestic ...