China

The day Chinese new Premier Li Qiang told CEOs of multinational companies at a conference in Beijing that “no matter what happens,” China will maintain steady economic growth, a South China Morning Post report on March 27, said Alibaba founder Jack Ma has returned to China after ending more than a year-long stay outside the country. The Hong Kong-based English newspaper did not say when Jack Ma returned to China, but citing sources, said the 58-year-old business tycoon visited a school he set up in Hangzhou, the home of his technology firm Ant Group. In the business circle, this is seen as a major development as Jack Ma returned to China when Li Qiang, the country’s number two leader after President Xi Jinping, is trying to put life in the declining economy by promising to safeguard...

In an address delivered on Sunday in China, the president of the International Monetary Fund urged increased attention to the world financial system and noted the emergence of "green shoots" in the second-largest economy in the world. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva stated during comments at the China Development Forum in Beijing that "risks to financial stability have increased." Georgieva praised the speed with which policymakers had responded to the financial crisis, pointing to recent cooperation between significant central banks to increase the movement of US money internationally. She claimed that these measures had somewhat reduced the tension on the market. However, there is a lot of ambiguity, which emphasizes the need for caution. Following the abrupt fail...

According to S&P Global Ratings experts, local governments' direct debt will surpass 120% of revenues in 2022, which is higher than the formal debt ceiling Beijing has set. An entire part of the yearly government work report, which was published this month, was devoted to avoiding and neutralizing significant threats in real estate and municipal government debt. Several municipal governments are experimenting with other revenue-generating strategies, but at the expense of equitable market access for bike-sharing companies. Two studies issued by China's National Development and Reform Commission, which is in charge of overseeing economic planning, indicate as much. Under a central government that has made it plain that reducing financial dangers is its top goal, China's debt-r...

A politicized financial system may become more unstable as centralized control grows. Please make use of the sharing options available through the share icon located at the top or side of stories. Copying stories to distribute to others is against FT.com's terms of service and copyright policy. To purchase more rights, send an email to licensing@ft.com. Using the present article service, subscribers may distribute up to 10 or 20 articles each month. You can learn more at https://www.ft.com/tour.https://www.ft.com/content/e7964639-67c0-472c-8f50-fb1e82f1ecd0 The demise of Silicon Valley Bank, Credit Suisse, and other lesser banks in the US and Europe brutally demonstrated the costs of regulation failure and financial volatility. Lessons from these events should not only be applied lo...

In recent years, China's economic coercion tactics have become increasingly prevalent in the developing world. The country has been accused of using its economic power to coerce smaller nations into accepting its political agenda. According to a report by the International Crisis Group (ICG), China has been using its economic might to exert pressure on developing countries to tow its line. This is evidenced by the way China has been pushing for its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) project, which is a massive infrastructure development plan aimed at connecting China with the rest of Asia and Europe. The report highlights that the BRI has become a tool for China to exercise its economic influence over developing nations, with Beijing offering loans and investment in return for political...

China may have increased its defence outlay and set up an ambitious growth rate of 5% for 2023, but perhaps for the first time, the communist leadership may not have been able to restrain itself from highlighting the myriad economic challenges the country faces. The rare outpouring of woe in the country came on March 3, at the first session of the 5th National People's Congress that opened at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Party and state leaders Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Li Qiang, Wang Huning, Han Zheng, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang, Li Xi, Wang Qishan and others attended the meeting. Premier Li Keqiang delivered a government work report to the conference on behalf of the State Council. Significantly, the meeting admitted that China, despite its image as an ...

BOC Research Institute released the 2023 Economic and Financial Outlook (the “Report”) in Beijing on November 30, 2022. The Report reviews the global and China’s economic and financial performance as well as the global banking performance in 2022. It also provides an outlook on the economic and financial situations and the global banking trends in 2023. In terms of the global economic and financial situations, the Report notes that the world economy faced a mounting risk of “stagflation” through 2022 due to the Russia-Ukraine conflicts, energy shortage and monetary tightening of developed economies. The US Dollar Index and US Treasury yields soared with the reshoring of capital to the United States, continuous tightening of offshore dollar liquidity and volatile financial markets. Look...