Chinese Economics Thread

[bladerunner]

Listening to the BBC's documentary on the creation of another city from the destruction of 'White Horse Village' one is provided with a lot of broken promises made to the villagers in return for the land.

eg promised a new school (never happened, the children are taken to other village schools where overcrowding has seen 150 pupils to a room several pupils sharing a desk) thus causing resentment.

2/ Outsiders such as the privileged newcomers are using the school. THey are also occupying the new promised homes.

3/ This is only one village/ how many other 'white horse villages ' around china are experincing this problem.

4/ The central authorities need to step in to prevent this from happening, before proceeding with other grandiose schemes, while leaving the local population with only broken promises.

[pla101prc]

Listening to the BBC's documentary on the creation of another city from the destruction of 'White Horse Village' one is provided with a lot of broken promises made to the villagers in return for the land.

eg promised a new school (never happened, the children are taken to other village schools where overcrowding has seen 150 pupils to a room several pupils sharing a desk) thus causing resentment.

2/ Outsiders such as the privileged newcomers are using the school. THey are also occupying the new promised homes.

3/ This is only one village/ how many other 'white horse villages ' around china are experincing this problem.

4/ The central authorities need to step in to prevent this from happening, before proceeding with other grandiose schemes, while leaving the local population with only broken promises.

lol that's not how politics works man. the central government cant just intervene in every village there are like a million villages in China.

this stuff should be left to the provincial and depending on how serious it is the central gov will step in to resolve the really bad ones. but they do it not for the sake of resolving problems but to convey their desire to the provincial and local government to pay more attention to this stuff. governing a country especially is way more complicated than some of us here thinks. i'd appreciated if all of us stop trying to simplify the problem and look at issues both from the ppl AND from the government's perspective. because when you look at things only from the government's perspective you tend to be oppressive, when you look at things only from the ppl's perspective you tend to be complainers and propose unrealistic actions.

[crobato]

China Airbus orders may be cancelled
Dec 11 2008 by David R. Jones, Daily Post

IMPORTANT orders from China for new Airbus jets could be cancelled or put on ice as the Far East aviation market is hit by turbulence in the global economy.

A cut in Chinese purchases could affect both Airbus, which builds the wings for its airliners at Broughton in Flintshire, and its American competitor Boeing.

Both firms have looked to China’s burgeoning travel and freight market to fuel demand for their planes, and Airbus has this year opened a new assembly plant near Beijing for its A320 Family aircraft.

But China’s aviation industry regulator has now told domestic airlines to cancel or postpone aircraft deliveries due in 2009 as passenger numbers fall.

The once booming Chinese airline sector is suffering from overcapacity amid a slump in travel that started in the second half of this year as the economy began to cool.

“Throughout the second half of the year, the global economic gloom is having an increasingly grave impact on the development of China's civil aviation industry,” said the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

Airlines around the world are grounding planes, cutting capacity and delaying or even cancelling orders for new aircraft as passenger numbers fall, air cargo volumes drop, and airlines are squeezed by high aviation fuel prices.

Airbus had hoped the rapid recent growth of the aviation market in countries like India and China would help offset a general slump in orders this year.

However, it is now clear that China's top three airlines, Air China, China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines, have not been immune from the downturn.

Airbus said it had firmed up 140 out of 160 jets ordered by China last November.

Many of the planes wanted by China are from Airbus’ A320 Family, and the new £325m assembly plant at Tianjin will assemble that type of aircraft, although Broughton will retain its monopoly on wing manufacture.

Cancellation or deferment of A320 orders will not worry Airbus too much as the firm has a huge order backlog for the aircraft that will take years to work through.

It will be more worried about possible cancellations of its flagship superjumbo and other wide-bodied, long range aircraft.

Airlines typically pay up to 30% of the purchase price of a jet in advance, and could face estimated cancellation penalties of up to 10% of the deal price.

http://www.dailypost.co.uk/business-...5578-22451080/

[crobato]

Cutting out the bureaucracy.

China central bank: State treasury fund to go directly to final recipients
www.chinaview.cn 2008-12-18 01:06:11 Print

BEIJING, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese central bank said Wednesday the State treasury fund for projects to improve people's livelihood, infrastructure, ecological environment and post-disaster reconstruction, would go directly to final recipients.

Su Ning, vice governor of the People's Bank of China (PBOC), said the central bank would study new methods to let the State treasury play a better role in supporting the country's policies to sustain the economy.

He said the State treasury would continue increase direct financial aid to agriculture-related and disaster-relief projects.

The central bank, responsible for managing the treasury, would ensure the money be put in the right place in time and would simplify treasury procedures of customs tax rebates.

Usually, the State treasury fund would first go to units that submitted budgets. Most of them were governments at all levels.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...t_10520957.htm

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http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...t_10523484.htm

Growth of China's Christmas-related exports skids in financial crisis
www.chinaview.cn 2008-12-18 11:08:42 Print

Special Report: Global Financial Crisis

BEIJING, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- China's exports for the Christmas season have taken a hit amid the financial crisis, the General Administration of Customs said on Thursday.

From January to October, Christmas-related exports stood at 1.64 billion U.S. dollars, up just 8.3 percent year-on-year. The growth rate was 32 percentage points below the year-earlier level.

In the July-October period, when exports for Christmas usually peak, China exported 1.28 billion U.S. dollars worth of such goods, up 3.6 percent. The growth rate was down 38.9 percentage points.

Of the total, 46.1 percent, or 590 million U.S. dollars, went to the United States in the four-month period, down 2.8 percent. In 2007, the year-on-year change was up 39.3 percent.

The United States and the European Union are major markets for China's Christmas-related exports. The two markets accounted for 76.8 percent of China's total in the first 10 months of this year.

[crobato]

Not in Xinjiang though.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...t_10514915.htm

NW China ethnic region records export surge
www.chinaview.cn 2008-12-16 21:53:45 Print

URUMQI, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China has so far this year recorded a surge of 72.8 percent in its export despite the spreading global financial crisis, the regional foreign trade and economic cooperation bureau said on Thursday.

The volume of Xinjiang's export during the period reached 17.69billion U.S. dollars, while its import increased by 36.7 percent to 2.82 billion dollars, the department said.

With the remarkable export and import volume, the region replaced Sichuan Province to become the bellwether of foreign trade in China's vast western region.

Huang Pingzhao, a leading analyst of the bureau, attributed the export surge to the Mid Asian market, which accounts for more than80 percent Xinjiang's exports and is not so badly impacted in the global financial crisis as the European, American and Japanese markets.

Besides, most of Xinjiang's exports were consumer goods. "The market demand in Mid Asia for consumer goods was rigid," Huang added.

The analyst said more Chinese domestic companies were expected to expand their exports to Mid Asia via Xinjiang next year, bringing an even more promising future for the region.

[crobato]

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...t_10543262.htm

Global slowdown cuts November growth of China petrochemical sector
www.chinaview.cn 2008-12-22 16:24:11 Print

Special Report: Global Financial Crisis

BEIJING, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- Hit by shrinking demand amid global financial and economic turmoil, the growth of China's petroleum and chemical industry slowed in November, the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association said on Monday.

Output value rose just 0.8 percent year-on-year to 484.25 billion yuan (70.82 billion U.S. dollars), the group said. That was 28.1 percentage points lower than the year-earlier level and down 17.7 points from the previous month.

The total included 260 billion yuan generated by the chemical sector, down 1.5 percent, and 68 billion yuan by the oil and gas extraction sector, down 1.2 percent.

The two sectors' growth rates were 30.5 percent and 34 percent, respectively, for the same month last year.

Last month, among 69 types of petrochemical products surveyed, 70 percent reported declining output.

Fertilizer production fell 16.3 percent year-on-year, or 12.8 percent month-on-month, to 4 million tonnes. Methanol output fell 9.6 percent year-on-year and 17 percent month-on-month to about 838,000 tonnes.

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China's foreign debt soars more than 18%
Posted: 27 December 2008 1209 hrs


Photos 1 of 1

An aerial photo shows the centre of Beijing's central business district



BEIJING: China's foreign debt increased by more than 18 per cent in the first nine months of the year, with short-term debt rising especially fast, state media reported Saturday.

At the end of September, overseas borrowing stood at 442 billion dollars, a rise of 18.3 per cent from the end of last year, the Xinhua news agency said, quoting the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

It did not offer an explanation for the rise.

Short-term debt -- defined as loans with maturities of less than one year -- had risen particularly fast, increasing by 27.2 per cent over the nine-month period to 280 billion dollars, according to Xinhua.

Medium to long-term debt was up by a more moderate 5.5 per cent to 162 billion dollars, according to Xinhua.

Despite the growth in overseas borrowing, the world's fourth-largest economy remains in a position to service its debt, as it also holds the world's largest foreign exchange reserves.

Fuelled by its large trade surplus, China's forex reserves reached 1.9 trillion dollars in late September, according to the latest figures available.

- AFP/yt

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stori...398728/1/.html

[pla101prc]

last time i checked China's forex is on the decline

[crobato]

last time i checked China's forex is on the decline

It actually hit over $2 trillion last November.

[crobato]

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...t_10588064.htm

Yearender: China strives to help low-income workers, new grads find jobs
www.chinaview.cn 2009-01-01 09:28:27 Print

Special Report: Global Financial Crisis

BEIJING, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- Feng Guangping finally sees the hope of having a real house, even a rented one.

"A house means a real home," said Feng, 41, whose current "home" is a 10 sq m compartment in a residential community's vehicle shed in Yinchuan, the capital of northwestern Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

He applied unsuccessfully several times for a low-rent house, but he might have better luck this time, thanks to China's 900 billion yuan (about 130 million U.S. dollars) plan for low- and middle-income housing.

"I finally see hope," Fan said after community staffer Li Xuehua told him that his application was in the queue for rental houses, meaning he had qualified.

About 7.5 million low-income urban families and 2.4 million households in shantytowns are expected to benefit from the housing stimulus package over the next three years.

As economic growth slows, both the central and local governments have sought to soften the blow for low-income and unemployed households.

"Without the free skill-training class funded by the government, I'd just be killing time," said Zhang Daxue, a migrant worker who has returned to his hometown in Bijie City, southwestern Guizhou Province.

Zhang worked in a power company in northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region with a monthly salary of 3,000 yuan. Due to the impact of the financial crisis, his salary fell to only 1,000 yuan, which he said was difficult to live on. He went home in early November.

He joined an electric-welding class funded by the Baiyun district government of Bijie, which leads to a trade certificate.

Zhang said that even though he was good at his job, the lack of formal training kept his pay low. He said he hoped that with a certificate, he would find a job in his home province, which will start new highway and hydroelectric projects in 2009.

About 7.8 million migrant workers have returned home, partly because of factories that have closed amid the global slowdown, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

The central government has told local governments to offer free training for unemployed migrant workers to help them find new jobs or start businesses.

In Guizhou, all returning migrant workers can get free training. The local governments will offer subsidies of 500 yuan to 800 yuan to schools that teach these workers certain skills.

"To carry out skill training for migrant workers who return home is totally for their benefit," said Liu Xiqiu, director of the employment and vocational skill development center of Guiyang, the Guizhou provincial capital.

The training will increase the competitiveness of migrant workers and help them find better jobs in eastern coastal areas in the future, said Liu. He said the center will also provide a good platform for them to work inside the province.

China has also urged companies to reduce job cuts. However, millions of college graduates are finding job-hunting hard work.

Li Yunpan, a graduate of the Ningxia-based North University of Nationalities, said he had attended many job fairs in Beijing and Shanghai, but the results were rather disappointing.

"Graduates this year seem to have fewer opportunities as many companies have no hiring plans," said Li, a finance major. "No work means no income."

Education authorities have urged graduates to take grass-roots posts in the countryside and told colleges to keep students enrolled doing research work as part of the effort to reduce employment pressure.

In February, an employment project involving 40 universities and 30 economic development zones across the country will be launched to help graduates find work. Graduates will have a transition period of doing research or working for universities and development zones, before going to career-related jobs. Experts expect the project to provide employment for about 1 million graduates.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...d=ateczweocoZQ

China Manufacturing Shrinks for 5th Month on Exports (Update1)
Email | Print | A A A

By Li Yanping

Jan. 2 (Bloomberg) -- China’s manufacturing contracted for a fifth month in December as recessions in the U.S., Europe and Japan sapped demand for exports, a survey showed.

The CLSA China Purchasing Managers’ Index stood at a seasonally adjusted 41.2, compared with a record low of 40.9 in November, CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets said today in an e-mailed statement. A reading below 50 reflects a contraction.

Manufacturers in industries from metals to toys are reducing production or closing down. Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd., the nation’s biggest maker of the metal, and Yunnan Tin Co., the world’s largest producer of tin, cut output as prices fell.

“Chinese manufacturing was very weak in December,” said Eric Fishwick, head of economic research at CLSA in Singapore. “With five back-to-back PMIs signaling contraction, the manufacturing sector, which accounts for 43 percent of the Chinese economy, is close to technical recession.”

The output index fell to a record low of 38.6 last month from 39.2 in November, while the measure of new orders rose to 37 from 36.1. The index of export orders jumped to 33.6 from 28.2, CLSA said.

“Chinese manufacturers reduced the size of their workforces at the fastest rate recorded by the series to date,” today’s report said. An employment index tracked by CLSA has contracted for five consecutive months to 45.2 in December.

Economic Growth

China’s economic growth may have slipped to 5.5 percent last quarter, the weakest pace in at least 15 years, according to Shanghai-based Industrial Bank Co.

The economic slide may intensify pressure on the central bank to keep cutting interest rates after five reductions in three months and as the government rolls out a 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) spending package announced in November.

Central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan pledged Dec. 31 to continue a “flexible” monetary policy. Capital Economics Ltd. forecasts the key one-year lending rate will fall by at least 81 basis points from 5.31 percent in the first half of this year.

A drastic slowdown in industrial-output growth is mainly due to companies running down excess inventory, central bank Vice Governor Yi Gang said Dec. 26. That process may continue until the end of the second quarter, Yi said.

Government Boost

Exports fell for the first time in seven years in November, imports plunged and industrial output grew at the slowest pace in almost a decade. The government has responded to the deepening slowdown with the stimulus package running through 2010, interest-rate cuts and reductions in export taxes.

It has also stalled the yuan’s gains against the dollar since mid-July. A weaker currency helps exporters by keeping down prices in overseas markets.

China needs to boost consumption and prepare more measures to tackle the global financial crisis, the central bank said Dec. 31. It reaffirmed a “moderately loose” monetary policy.

The CLSA index, started in 2004, is based on a survey of more than 400 manufacturing companies and tracks changes in output, orders, employment, inventories and prices.

To contact the reporters on this story: Li Yanping in Beijing at yli16@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: January 1, 2009 21:49 EST

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http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...t_10605563.htm

China's 2008 fiscal revenue expected to exceed 6 trillion yuan
www.chinaview.cn 2009-01-05 10:46:08 Print

Special Report: Global Financial Crisis
·China's 2008 fiscal revenue is expected to exceed 6 trillion yuan.
·This represented a year-on-year increase of 19 percent.
·Finance Minister Xie expected the downward trend to continue in 2009.

BEIJING, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- China's 2008 fiscal revenue is expected to exceed 6 trillion yuan (about 857 billion U.S. dollars), Finance Minister Xie Xuren told a national conference Monday.

This represented a year-on-year increase of 19 percent, comparing with a 32.4 percent growth in 2007.

The country's fiscal revenue increase started to decline in the second half of 2008 because of economic slowdown, corporate profits decline and tax cuts to boost growth amid the global financial crisis, Xie said.

He expected the downward trend to continue in 2009, which wouldmake it "a difficult fiscal year" marked by falling revenue growthand surging expenditure.

The central government has decided to carry out an active fiscal policy and a moderately easy monetary policy in 2009. It has unveiled a four trillion-yuan economic stimulus package to boost growth through enhancing domestic demand.

The country's fiscal revenue rose 20.5 percent year-on-year to 5.8 trillion yuan in the first 11 months last year. The expenditure also increased in the first 11 months, up 23.6 percentto nearly 4.6 trillion yuan.

Fiscal revenue dropped 3.1 percent in November from a year earlier.

In October, the country reported 532.9 billion yuan in fiscal revenue, down 0.3 percent year-on-year, the first decline in 12 years.

According to Xie, reform and development in rural areas would be one of the government's major tasks in 2009. Financial support will be reinforced for farmers, agricultural production and rural areas this year.

The central budget has channeled 102.77 billion yuan in subsidies for farmers in 2008, more than doubled from a year earlier.

The government will continue to optimize the structure of fiscal expenditure this year, spending more money to improve people's quality of life, Xie said.

The country's fiscal expenditure on education is expected to reach 158.2 billion yuan in 2008, up 47 percent from 2007, while that on medical and health care will increase 25.5 percent year-on-year to 83.36 billion yuan. A forecast 276.16 billion yuanis spent to improve social welfare and employment last year, increasing nearly 20 percent.

The government would also spend more money to help boost employment this year, he said.　

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http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...t_10611714.htm

China pledges to boost employment in 2009 amid global job cuts
www.chinaview.cn 2009-01-06 11:29:55 Print

Special Report: Global Financial Crisis


BEIJING, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- Amid waves of job cuts worldwide, China has embarked on active measures to minimize job cuts and has pledged to boost employment this year.

The financial crisis continues to hurt the fourth largest economy and pushed many enterprises to cut their headcounts.

The following provinces are among the many in the country that have striven to stabilize their job markets.

South China's Yangtze River Delta, a major manufacturing center, has been hit unexpectedly hard. Job vacancies in the manufacturing sector stood at 41.43 percent of the total in the eastern Zhejiang Province in the third quarter, a record low in recent years.

The same situation occurred to manufacturers in the eastern Jiangsu Province with job vacancies in the sector accounting for 50.15 percent of the total, down 0.94 percent over the same period last year, and down 4.16 percent from the second quarter.

To cushion the regions from the effects of the global crisis, the Yangtze Delta has set up an early warning system to conduct monitoring of the job situation. At present, six cities including Nanjing, Hangzhou and Ningbo are the trial areas.

The system is designed for regional labor and social security offices to collect employment information, such as the possible job cuts and the planned new recruits in the following week and the actual cuts.

Zhejiang Province will do this in 11 cities this year.

At the end of November, Zhejiang also cut back enterprises' payments of social security funds for employees to mitigate their burden.

Another focus of most cities in the region is to encourage people to start businesses. Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces pledge to kick in favorable measures including free skill training for laid-off workers.

Officials and experts said the region expects a tougher job picture in the first quarter of this year as the global financial turmoil continued to spread.

Shanghai has launched programs to provide graduates and migrant workers with subsidies for skill training. On Dec. 30, the first employment service base was set up in Shanghai for graduates to gain internship experiences.

The Shanghai government also encouraged business start-ups to increase jobs. The city pledged to limit the registered unemployment rate to below 4.5 percent.

Hong Kong posted its registered unemployment rate at 3.8 percent between September to November, up from 3.5 percent between August and October, an extra 4,600 jobless.

Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, chief executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, said the current government work aimed at guaranteeing stability of job markets.

In early December last year, the Hong Kong government took a series of steps to create more than 60,000 posts in 2009. For example, the spending on infrastructure would be raised to about 40 billion Hong Kong Dollars, which would provide 55,000 jobs, 12,000 more than last year. The government would also add 7,700 public servant jobs.

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http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...t_10611991.htm

China's economic powerhouse Guangdong told to tighten belt
www.chinaview.cn 2009-01-06 13:39:48 Print

Special Report: Global Financial Crisis

GUANGZHOU, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- Despite a 10.1-percent growth in GDP last year, China's economic powerhouse of Guangdong Province was warned of belt-tightening ahead as concern mounts over the effects of the international financial crisis.

"We should tighten our belts and be thrifty in everything this year," Guangdong Governor Huang Huahua was quoted as saying by Guangzhou Daily on Tuesday.

The financial situation for Guangdong would be tough this year as it would face new challenges brought about by the global financial crisis, said Huang.

He added the province would spend money "saved over the past few years" to boost domestic demand this year, while continuing to improve living standards.

Huang made the remarks after briefing a meeting of the provincial Communist Party of China committee that Guangdong was expected to realize 3.57 trillion yuan (522 billion U.S. dollars) in GDP last year, a 10.1 percent increase.

He said thrift was essential even in celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, saying the printing of elaborate invitation cards to events and celebrity performances would be viewed as a waste of money.

Guangdong was an agricultural province before China launched the reform and opening-up drive in 1978. At that time, its economic output was about 20 billion yuan, or 5 percent of the national economy.

However, it grew at an average annual rate of 13.45 percent in the past three decades, 3.5 percentage points higher than the national level, and accounted for one-eighth of the national economy in 2007.

A report released by the Guangdong Academy of Social Sciences last week said other provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities were unlikely to replace or overtake Guangdong in economic output in the near future.