China

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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Since the epidemic, China’s central bank has unveiled the most powerful stimulus.
26Sep By TheGreenZoneNo Comments
Asia, China, Market

Since the epidemic, China’s central bank has unveiled the most powerful stimulus.

BEIJING, Sept 24 (Reuters) - China's central bank on Tuesday unveiled its biggest stimulus since the pandemic to pull the economy out of its deflationary funk and back towards the government's growth target, but analysts warned more fiscal help was vital to hit these goals. The broader-than-expected package offering more funding and interest rate cuts marks the latest attempt by policymakers to restore confidence in the world's second-largest economy after a slew of disappointing data raised concerns of a prolonged structural slowdown. But analysts questioned how productive the People's Bank of China's liquidity injections would be, given extremely weak credit demand from businesses and consumers, and noted the absence of any policies aimed at supporting real economic acti...
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<strong>China Retail Sales, factory output slows down</strong>
26Sep By Joe RodriguezNo Comments
China

China Retail Sales, factory output slows down

In August, China’s industrial output growth decelerated to its lowest point in five months. Retail sales and new home prices also continued to decline, strengthening the argument for significant economic stimulus to meet the annual growth target. The data, released on Saturday, mirrored the weak bank lending figures from Friday, highlighting the sluggish growth momentum of the world’s second-largest economy, valued at $18.6 trillion, in the third quarter. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), industrial output in August grew by 4.5% year-on-year, down from 5.1% in July, marking the slowest growth since March. This figure fell short of the 4.8% growth anticipated by a Reuters poll of 37 analysts. Despite the summer travel peak, retail sales—a crucial indicator ...
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How China got to be the market leader for electric vehicles and what the US can do to catch up
25Sep By TheGreenZoneNo Comments
Asia, China, Market

How China got to be the market leader for electric vehicles and what the US can do to catch up

The U.S. blinked, and China built an electric vehicle empire. "They're taking over the world, except North America," said Lei Xing, a Chinese auto industry expert. "The U.S. will be the last frontier." In the last 15 years, China has rolled out a public charging network over 10 million strong, convinced billions of drivers to go electric by dangling subsidies and other incentives, and introduced over 100 EV brands with a bevy of pricing options. The push exemplifies "China Speed," a term Xing used to describe the country's hypersonic development. The speed and scale of the shift has slingshotted China past the U.S. and every other nation in the transition to electric vehicles, while also positioning Chinese automakers near the front of the pack to dominat...
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China Is Not Rich, But It Has Become Powerful
25Sep By TheGreenZoneNo Comments
Asia, China

China Is Not Rich, But It Has Become Powerful

On Aug. 22, China commemorated the 120th anniversary of the birth of former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, whose market reforms catapulted China from famine-stricken communist backwater to global economic power. Xi praised Deng for his contribution to the party and the nation. Despite the two leaders’ common goal of a powerful China, however, Xi’s strategy for achieving it markedly differs from Deng’s. By extending his reign as China’s paramount leader beyond the two-term limit favored by Deng and making no preparations for a transition of power during his lifetime, Xi has discarded one of Deng’s main ideas for ensuring long-term political stability. Whereas Deng emphasized market reforms, Xi is reasserting centralized control by the party-state. But the most remarkable change ha...
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China announces several economic stimulus plans.
25Sep By TheGreenZoneNo Comments
China, Market

China announces several economic stimulus plans.

China's central bank has unveiled a major package of measures aimed at reviving the country's flagging economy. People's Bank of China (PBOC) Governor Pan Gongsheng announced plans to lower borrowing costs and allow banks to increase their lending. The move comes after a series of disappointing data has increased expectations in recent months that the world's second largest economy will miss its own 5% growth target this year. Stock markets in Asia jumped after Mr Pan's announcement. Speaking at a rare news conference alongside officials from two other financial regulators, Mr Pan said the central bank would cut the amount of cash banks have to hold in reserve - known as reserve requirement ratios (RRR). The RRR will initially be cut by half a percentage point, in a move ex...
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<strong>China is looking all set for a recession</strong>
24Sep By Brian ThompsonNo Comments
China, USA, World

China is looking all set for a recession

Ray Dalio the owner of American investment management firm, Bridgewater Associates which helps top investors worldwide to grow their money, in a recent interview with Bloomberg television, said that he had sold most of the investments in China. He warned that China was facing serious economic problems. “You have an environment in China which is changing and becoming a more difficult environment,” Dalio said. The trouble is evident in the stock market. The Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 index is on a free fall for more than two years. Investors both foreign and domestic are divesting investments to stop loss. Foreign investors are going to other emerging markets. Chinese nationals are holding on cash or buying gold coins and bars to prevent further erosion of personal wealth. “The...
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<strong>China targets Canadian Canola amid trade dispute</strong>
17Sep By Joe RodriguezNo Comments
China, World

China targets Canadian Canola amid trade dispute

Trade wars are a common occurrence in the global market, and the friction between China and Canada is no exception. These conflicts are often fuelled by geopolitical issues. Back in 2019, China halted Canadian meat imports after Huawei’s CEO, Meng Wanzhou, was detained. Officially, China blamed banned feed additives in the meat, but many saw it as a diplomatic move in response to the Ottawa-Beijing rift. Now, China is considering probing Canada for allegedly dumping canola into its market. In the realm of international trade, dumping refers to selling a product at a lower price in a foreign market than in the domestic one, essentially a form of price discrimination. Following Canada’s imposition of a 100% tariff on electric vehicles and a 25% tariff on steel and aluminium from Chin...
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An economist claims that China’s economy is undergoing a “slow, painful, grinding adjustment.”
17Sep By TheGreenZoneNo Comments
Asia, China, Market

An economist claims that China’s economy is undergoing a “slow, painful, grinding adjustment.”

SINGAPORE — Following a slew of data released over the weekend from China that painted a fairly bleak outlook for its economy, analysts have tapered their expectations for the country’s full year GDP growth. “There hasn’t been much good news in this latest round of data, and this has been the pattern for the last few months,” said Eswar Prasad, professor of international trade and economics at Cornell University, on CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Monday. “Both the long term issues related to property prices and so on, and the short term issues related to domestic demand in particular, especially private investment and household consumption have not been doing well at all,” Prasad said. He warned that Beijing’s economic outlook for the second half of the year is now “flas...
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Expert: China has the funds to handle the real estate crisis without affecting the rest of the world.
12Sep By TheGreenZoneNo Comments
Asia, China, Market, World

Expert: China has the funds to handle the real estate crisis without affecting the rest of the world.

China’s property market remains the biggest downside risk to its economic growth target this year, with policymakers seemingly not in a hurry to make significant changes because its impact is mostly confined to the world’s second-largest economy, according to the chief economist for a global ratings agency. “China has the savings to deal with this. It’s not really spilling over too much to the rest of the world,” said Paul Gruenwald, global chief economist at S&P Global Ratings. “So they’re not going to be forced into dealing with the property excesses by any external or market pressure. They can do it at their own time, but we are not at the bottom yet.” In May, China unveiled wide-ranging measures to stabilise its property sector, which has been in contraction sin...
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