Chinese Economics Thread

[Jura The idiot]

now I read
China's island province to limit number of new cars
Xinhua| 2018-05-16 00:49:12

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China's island province of Hainan will control the number of new cars by setting registration quotas.

Starting from August 1, license plates for new cars, except new-energy ones, can be obtained by either a lottery-style system or bidding, the provincial government announced Tuesday night.

The precise quota has not yet been announced. Registration of new cars will halt between Wednesday and July 31.

Hainan plans to have all its vehicles run on new energy by 2030 to promote green development.

The island has more than 9 million people and about 1.18 million vehicles. It plans to introduce 5,600 new energy vehicles into the market and build more than 10,000 recharging posts this year.

 

[Jura The idiot]

now I read (it's

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):
"China’s greying population ushers in a more prosperous era

China’s greying population is rapidly growing—241 million people over the age of 60 by the end of 2017, or 17.3% of China’s total population, according to the data from National Bureau of Statistics. Although this has put pressure on society, the country’s rapidly aging population brings massive market potential.

The 2018 edition of the Blue Book of China’s Graying Society was released by China Research Center on Aging on May 15.

According to the report, the happiness of China’s seniors has significantly increased. Also, the urban-rural gap in terms of seniors’ income and purchasing power has narrowed. Meanwhile, the aging population is more likely to pay attention to life quality and fashion trends.

Of all the elderly consumption preferences, online shopping is the most prominent one.

Due to the changes over time, China’s aging population has become a major part of the consumption structure. They have diversified demands, including health products, arts and crafts, and entertainment, which brings a great deal of new opportunities for businesses, according to the 2017 AliResearch’s Parents Mobile Internet Life Report.

With the popularity of smartphones and online shopping, elderly people aged 50-69 are fast learners whom are well trained by their children in mobile technologies. The report showed that elderly people prefer electronic products and home appliances, such as smartphones, digital cameras, and air conditioners.

On November 11th (also known as “Singles Day”) last year , over 500 million elderly people took part in the annual shopping festival, spending 5,000 yuan per person. During the New Year Festival shopping season in 2018, the elderly population was behind a more than 150% increase for fresh food goods on Jingdong, a Chinese e-commerce platform, as well as other shopping apps, according to China’s National Information Center.

Chinese companies are exploring ways to grow the elderly market.

In January 2018, Alibaba posted a recruitment ad for a high paying position ($55,000 to $79,000 annually) for research specialists who can understand elderly customer shopping habits.

Subsequently, on February 1, Taobao, China’s largest online shopping platform, which is owned by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., rolled out a “family account” as part of its effort to win over elderly users. Parents can send product links to their children and ask them for advice before making a purchase. When it comes to pay for an item, the parents can ask their children for help to pay, too.

China’s National Committee on Aging (CNCA) estimates that China’s elderly population will spend some 3.3 trillion yuan in 2020 and 8.6 trillion yuan in 2030, which means that the elderly market in China has a promising future.

As China’s elderly population gets used to living a happier life in the internet era, the greying economy in China will only see even more growth."

 

[Jura The idiot]

now I read
Economic Watch: Strong resilience of Chinese economy
Xinhua| 2018-05-16 20:49:19

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A range of data have shown the Chinese economy is resilient, with supply-side reform delivering progress.

Meng Wei, a spokesman with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country's economic planning agency, said Wednesday that market prices remained stable, which was compatible with the country's economic fundamentals.

"It is a reflection of fruitful supply-side reform, more balanced market supply and demand, and enhanced stability in economic development," she noted.

A range of economic data has shined a positive light on the world's second largest economy.

China's electricity consumption picked up in April with 7.8 percent year-on-year growth, faster than the 3.6-percent growth recorded in March, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has reported.

The consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 1.8 percent year-on-year in April, compared with 2.1 percent for March.

The producer price index (PPI), which measures the cost of goods at the factory gate, rose 3.4 percent year-on-year in April, up from the 3.1 percent recorded in March.

On the supply side, the proportion of social logistic expenditure to GDP stood at 14.6 percent in 2017, falling for five years in a row.

In the first quarter of 2018, the proportion declined further to 14.5 percent, but was still above the level in developed economies.

"It reflects the fact that logistic costs are too high in China, while efficiency is too low," Meng said.

To bring down logistics costs, the NDRC has introduced concrete measures. Starting May 1, the value-added tax in the transport sector had been reduced to 10 percent.

Also as of May 1, the NDRC had lowered the electricity costs for industrial and business users.

China's economic activity held largely stable in April, with strong momentum in the industrial sector buffering the impact from slowing retail sales and fixed asset investment.

"China's economy maintained its trend of steady development in April," NBS spokesperson Liu Aihua said Tuesday.

A breakdown of the data showed industrial structure continued to improve, with production in high-tech industries and the equipment manufacturing sector expanding by double-digit rates.

Output of new energy vehicles saw a surge of 82.2 percent year-on-year in April, while industrial robot production jumped by 35.4 percent.

"However, it is worth noting that the economy still faces growing external uncertainties and the acute problems of unbalanced and inadequate domestic development," Liu said.

Earlier data showed China's economy expanded 6.8 percent year-on-year at comparable prices in the first three months of 2018, above the government's annual target of around 6.5 percent.

 

[Jura The idiot]

now I read
China's high-quality development requires further reform, opening up: senior official
Xinhua| 2018-05-18 00:33:36

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China's economic transition to high-quality development requires further reform and opening up, a senior Chinese official has said.

"Governments should substantially reduce their role in direct resources allocation and channel more energy into macro regulation, public services, market supervision, social management, and environmental protection," said Yang Weimin, deputy head of the Office of the Central Commission for Financial and Economic Affairs.

"Resources allocation should be based on market rules, prices and competition," Yang said Thursday at a forum marking the 40th anniversary of the reform and opening-up drive, hosted by the Institute of Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

As the world's second largest economy, China is in the middle of a major economic transformation shifting from speed to quality. For example, slower GDP growth is more tolerable while other factors including employment, environment and industrial restructuring are given greater importance.

Yang said China had altered its concepts and road maps for economic development amid a changing circumstance. "There have been dramatic changes in China's demand structure ... pollution has exceeded the environmental bearing capacity," he said.

The senior economic official listed several areas for China's high quality development.

"China should maintain equilibrium in indicators of growth, employment, prices and international balance of payments," Yang said. "Industrial modernization should be promoted, with intelligent production and core technology."

"There should be more emphasis on improving the efficiency of new production factors including talent, technology, data and environment," Yang said. He also stressed spatial equilibrium of resources and coordinated development of agriculture, industry and services.

 

[Orthan]

A firm controlled by a local government has defaulted on its debt. The article mentions that the loans were provided by mostly staterun firms. What is the status of these loans that the government makes for itself? they account that for loss or is there any other status in the chinese rules for that? This is important if the governemnt is to aknowledge the fact that a lot of this local governemnt debt is unpayable or can only be rolled over with little chance of it ever being payed.

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[taxiya]

A firm controlled by a local government has defaulted on its debt. The article mentions that the loans were provided by mostly staterun firms. What is the status of these loans that the government makes for itself? they account that for loss or is there any other status in the chinese rules for that? This is important if the governemnt is to aknowledge the fact that a lot of this local governemnt debt is unpayable or can only be rolled over with little chance of it ever being payed.

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China has similar cooperate law as other countries. I am not aware of anything special, but then I am not a layer.

The default of a government investment should not be much different. Government use their budget money to pay the debt until finished? They raise the tax to get the money? The tax will be put on everyone including the debtors themselves? Since the government is there forever, so is the budget from taxation being limitless. Remember, for government, tax is the left hand, debt is the right hand. Debtor of government is always fucked if they are the tax payer.

Is it a bigger problem than the 200% of GDP debt that the Japanese central government owes its citizen? I don't think so.

 

[Jura The idiot]

now I read
Green economy to tackle China's environmental pollution
Updated 2018-05-20 16:40 GMT+8

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Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a critical speech calling for a firm and persistent determination of the nation to prevail in the battle against environmental contamination at the National Ecological and Environmental Protection Conference on Saturday.

China's efforts against environmental pollution

People have been aware that China has drawn up several plans and measures, enacted laws and regulations and implemented various actions on the environment in recent years.

For example, in order to fight water pollution, China announced a plan in 2015, including scientific support and legal supervision. In addition, the country has also tackled smog issues. Compared to 2016, it has witnessed a reduction of more than 20 percent of the harmful PM 2.5 particles in Beijing.

At the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China last October, President Xi Jinping discussed several measures aimed at establishing a "beautiful China" and to build an ecological civilization. In January, China instituted an environmental tax and imposed fees on polluting companies. In addition, the new Ministry of Ecology and Environment, which is responsible for monitoring the nation's environment, was also set up.

Anti-pollution fight needs time

Although multiple measures have been taken toward eliminating diverse contamination issues, winning the anti-pollution "war" will take more time.

Shen Yiyang, a senior energy consultant at the Asian Development Bank, said that water, air and soil pollution has long been a struggle of the Chinese government. Despite the improvements and progress that have been achieved, the issues still remain. "The development of this country in the past few decades results in the fact that those problems cannot be solved very soon," Shen said.

Green economy is the key

However, when President Xi said that the "ecological environment is a crucial political and social issue that relates to the mission of the Communist Party of China and people's livelihood," it is clear that it's necessary to deal with pollution with more laws and green economic development.

Accelerating strict building regulations, for example, is an institutional guarantee. There is a need to take ecological value as the guideline, ecological industrialization as the main body, and improving the quality of an ecological environment as the core to speed up improvement of the ecological and cultural systems.

Promoting all-around green development is the ultimate solution for achieving this. It is essential to focus on adjusting the economic structure as well as the energy structure to nurture and expand the environmental protection industry and to advocate a green and low-carbon lifestyle.

It is also indispensable to effectively prevent the risks hidden in the ecological environment and improve the level of environmental monitoring so that people's livelihood can be enhanced and society can be developed within a sustainable and healthy environment.

Shen said in terms of balancing China's economic growth targets and ecological environment protection, the government has made significant strides in adopting new policies aimed at solving the issues. The automobile sector, for instance, is being transformed into the world's largest electric vehicle industry.

"The development model has also been changed," Shen said. "The previous massive production model has now shifted to the so-called green economy or green production. I think the government will continue to make more policies and more budgets to encourage the use of more green technologies. And I think, in the future, environmental problems will become much smaller."

 

[Jura The idiot]

now I read
China’s apple futures fuel ‘speculative boom’
2018-05-20 12:12 GMT+8

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In less than five months, official figures show that China's apple futures have fueled a "speculative boom" among investors, with the highest daily turnover reaching 616.3 billion yuan (about 96.65 billion US dollars).

Under the expectation of a decline in production, the price of apple futures has been soaring since April, with the sudden rise drawing a large number of opportunists into the market.

Wednesday marked the most active day for trading, with the daily trade volume surpassing annual apple production in China.

China, the world's largest apple grower and consumer, launched the world's first apple futures contracts on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange in Henan Province in December 2017 to help growers hedge against risks amid price fluctuations.

To counterbalance the speculative boom, the exchange has introduced risk prevention and control measures. The market stabilized after the daily turnover dropped more than 3 percent on Thursday and Friday.

Chang Qichao, an apple dealer in Lingbao in Henan Province, said he became very interested in the product due to these developments and he will apply to become a delivery warehouse for apple futures.

China's apple output has been increasing over the past decade. It had 2 million hectares of apple trees with an output of 43.88 million tonnes in 2016, accounting for 57 percent of global supply.

Apple growing is an important part of China's poverty alleviation campaign as many of the country's impoverished areas rely on the crop as a major income source.

The country has been stressing the role that financial services play in the real economy and issued futures contracts for commodities including white sugar, soybean meal, and cotton yarn.

 

[Jura The idiot]

now I read
China sees steady employment growth in 2017
Xinhua| 2018-05-21 21:43:32

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China continued to see a stable growth in employment in 2017, official data showed Monday.

The number of employees rose 370,000 to 776.4 million last year, according to a bulletin released by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

Nearly 45 percent of all employees were in tertiary industries, while 28.1 percent and 27 percent were in secondary and primary.

Urban employment rose 10 million to 424 million.

The total value of five social insurance premiums, including old-age pensions and unemployment insurance, increased 25.4 percent to 6.7 trillion yuan (1.05 trillion U.S. dollars).

The average wage of urban employees in the public sector rose 10 percent to stand at 74,318 yuan (11,600 U.S. dollars) for the year, while in the private sector the average salary rose 6.8 percent to 45,761 yuan.

The average annual wages of migrant workers increased 6.4 percent to 41,820 yuan, according to the bulletin.

 

[pipaster]

Q1 new energy vehicle sales up 136% YoY.

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