World Crisis Online

Home > Economy May 08,2009

By CSC staff, Shanghai The Canton (Guangzhou) Trade Fair, long regarded as an important weather vane for China’s foreign trade, this year faced bitter, cold winds. The 105^th holding of the fair, a semi-annual event that lasted 23 days this time, concluded yesterday. Trade volume of main export products such as machines and light industrial products all saw a decline, although the degree of decline differed in different sectors. The total trade volume in this Canton Fair dropped 16.9% below the previous one.   Wen Zhongliang, vice-director of the Department of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) and director of the business department of the Canton Fair, commented, “China’s exports will continue to decline short-term, and will hover at the bottom in this year’s second and third quarter, but the decline will be slower than in the previous months.” A rebound is “expected to occur in the fourth quarter,” he added. (more…)

Home > Economy August 18,2009

By Liu Xianfa How shall we look at the Chinese economy from and short-term and mid-term perspective? How can we judge whether asset bubbles will continue to inflate, only to burst? This is a key problem for the current economy. (more…)

Home > Commodities June 05,2009

By CSC staff, Shanghai On May 26, Rio Tinto and Nippon Steel reached an agreement on a 33% reduction in the price of iron ore.  China Iron & Steel Association (CISA) waited four days before playing its trump card and refusing, on behalf of all China’s steel producers, to accept the “starting price” negotiated with Japan. (more…)

By CSC staff, Shanghai While China’s economic growth in the year’s first half reached 7.1%, and officials are increasingly confident about reaching the 8% annual growth goal this year, there is a growing concern over bubbling stock and real estate markets, and the central bank is warning of future inflation pressures. The State Council, however, has decided it should at present continue to implement stimulative fiscal and monetary policies.
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By CSC staff, Shanghai Chinese private companies are no longer maintaining their silence as the government crows over the effect of its economic stimulus, and have begun to criticize stimulus policies as reinforcing the dominance of state-owned enterprises. Private companies are claiming that they too require financing opportunities, open markets, and tax cuts.
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By CT Johnson As oil prices rebound past $ 70 per barrel, China’s three major oil companies, PetroChina, SinoPec and CNOOC, are stepping up their overseas M&A activities before the prices return to $100 per barrel.
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By Xu Yisheng China’s “Undeclared War”?

Such reads the headline of a story in the UK’s Financial Times, covering the announcement by the U.S. Treasury Department in June of China’s reduction of its holdings of US Treasury bonds, maintaining that China is implementing dollar exit strategy.

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By CSC staff, Shanghai Governor of the People’s Bank of China Zhou Xiaochuan says he is expecting China’s voting power in the International Monetary Fund to be increased again in 2011.

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By CSC staff, Shanghai The Bank of China (BoC) has entered the UK retail banking business in a big way, offering very competitive loans in the local housing mortgage market.

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With the approach of the important Central Meeting for Economic Affairs, criticism of the current stimulus policy is becoming louder. The early December meeting will determine China’s monetary policy, foreign exchange policy, and fiscal policy for 2010.

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By CSC staff, Shanghai The State Administration of Foreign Exchange(SAFE), the agency stewarding China’s $2.4 trillion foreign exchange reserves under the People’s Bank of China, has invested billions of dollars in a number of US hedge funds and asset management firms, including Pacific Investment Management Co,(PIMCO)、BlackRock, and Bridgewater Associates.

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By Secretary Timothy F. Geithner It is a pleasure to be back in China and to join you here today at this great university.  (more…)

By CSC staff, Shanghai While Shanghai is making the Lujiazhui Forum an annual event for top Beijing financial officials to come and express their support and share ideas to support Shanghai’s ambition, Governor Zhou Xiaochuan of the People’s Bank of China says Beijing also needs to work to preserve Hong Kong’s status as an international financial center.

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By CT Johnson China Investment Corp, the country’s sovereign wealth fund, is planning to invest $500 million with US private equity firm Blackstone’s fund-of-funds division and to place a further, undisclosed sum of money with US investment bank Morgan Stanley’s asset-management group.  CIC’s move is surprising because it stands in stark contrast to the actions of other sovereign wealth funds, and to those of other Chinese firms making investments abroad.

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By CSC staff, Shanghai In its quest to shore up the economies of the developing world, the World Bank is seeking cooperation with China, encouraging it to use a portion of its huge foreign reserve for equity investment in developing countries, and to shift its production surpluses to Africa.

On a recent visit to China, World Bank President Robert Zoellick visited the China Investment Corporation (CIC) to discuss the possibility of its participation in the World Bank’s asset management company, which mainly focuses on equity investment in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. The discussion also touched on the feasibility of investing in the field of infrastructure. (more…)

By CSC staff, Shanghai Growing production surpluses resulting from the government’s stimulus package and loose credit policies are constraining the rebound of industry and the economy, and may undermine their recovery.

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By CSC staff, Shanghai 2009 turned out to be a bumper year for exports from China

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