Chinese Economics Thread

Hendrik_2000

Lieutenant General
Via beijingwalker
China retail sales grow $1,457bn
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-22 April 2019 02:34am

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Chinese retail sales grew to $1,457bn in the first quarter of 2019 in a sign the country’s economic downturn is not yet impacting consumer spending.

The increase of more than 8% year-on-year is positive news for marketers in the face of the economic downturn and the impact of the China and US trade war.

The figures from the National Bureau of Statistics of China revealed that online sales represented nearly 23% of overall retail sales and totalled $333bn in Q1.

Online sales increased 15.3% year-on-year driven by food, clothing and other commodities which increased 24.6%, 19.1%, and 21.3%, respectively.

More than 85% of sales came from urban areas while 14.7% came from rural areas, indicating increases of 8.2% and 9.2% year-on-year, respectively.

The figures support the continued growth which is forecast for the world’s largest retail market, the
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now I read this
Commentary: Supply-side reform enhances resilience of Chinese economy
Xinhua| 2019-04-22 19:10:09
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The Chinese economy posted faster-than-expected growth in the first quarter, as supply-side structural reform enhanced the inner strength of the world’s second-largest economy.

As China steps into a new stage of development, supply-side structural reform, which supports economic growth through productivity improvements and tax reduction, has gradually become the main driving force of economic growth.

Given downside risks of the economy from slowing global economic growth and a weakening export outlook clouded by the trade protectionism, investors expect the growth of China to weaken in 2019 from that recorded a year earlier.

To revive confidence and boost business activity, China announced a set of stimulus measures. Different from previous stimulus packages, the government did not rush to inject fresh liquidity into the economy. Instead, structural reform measures such as deleveraging, credit loosening and tax cuts were taken, mainly targeting the private sector.

Private business accounts for more than 80 percent of China’s urban employment and over 60 percent of the country's GDP. Good implementation of supply-side reform could release huge pent-up demand in this particularly important sector of the economy.

The supply-side reform has produced positive results, which were reflected in China's better-than-expected economic performance in the first quarter. Industrial production and retail sales have posted faster-than-expected growth in March. It shows the supply-side reform has generated self-sustained recovery of the economy.

The end goal of supply-side reform is to improve the efficiency of resource use and promote economic growth. When good resources go to the right places, greater benefits will be generated.

China’s long-term growth prospects will continue to depend on further reforms. The country is on its way to improving its economic efficiency and sustaining future growth without the need for a stimulus package.
 
now I read
Danske Bank analyst upbeat about Chinese economy's growth
Xinhua| 2019-04-22 21:06:41
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China's economy growing faster than expected in the first quarter this year is a good sign for a recovery from its slowdown at the end of 2018, an analyst told Xinhua on Monday.

The latest data showed that the economy grew at 6.4 percent in the first quarter, which "suggests that (the) economy likely bottomed in the beginning of the year and may already have started to recover," said Jens Naervig Pedersen, senior analyst at Danske Bank.

In recent months China has seen a sharp upswing in factory output, with March figures showing industrial production jumping to 8.5 percent.

Rising metal prices are also a good sign, Pedersen said. Figures published Monday showed China's steel and iron ore futures remain fairly buoyant as they shot up nearly 3 percent.

Another reason supporting the renewed optimism is the belief that a trade deal between China and the United States is imminent, after a long drawn-out trade spat.

"A trade deal would further support a recovery of the Chinese economy," Pedersen said. "Progress is being made and we think a deal is likely during this quarter."

Last week, the International Monetary Fund revised up China's 2019 growth projection by 0.1 percentage point to 6.3 percent, citing factors including the recent developments in the China-U.S. trade talks and China's stronger-than-expected expansionary fiscal policy.

Particular importance has also been attached to Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's statement that China would open up more sectors, and treat foreign companies as equals to domestic companies.

On top of that, China's pledge to support the private sector is considered crucial. Foreign portfolio investment in China reached a record high of 120 billion U.S. dollars in 2018.

"Reforms of the Chinese economy are important for the longer-term growth prospects," Pedersen said.
 

pipaster

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Amazon plans to shut its online store in China that allows shoppers to buy from local sellers as it downsizes operations in the country.

The firm said it would no longer run the domestic marketplace from July, but Chinese shoppers will still be able to order goods from Amazon's global store.

It will also continue to operate its cloud business in China.

The retail retreat comes as Amazon faces tough competition from local rivals Alibaba and JD.com.

Reuters first reported Amazon's plans to close its domestic marketplace in China by mid-July to focus on more lucrative businesses selling overseas goods and cloud services. Amazon's profitable cloud computing division hosts huge swathes of the corporate world on its data servers.

A spokesperson for the company said in a statement that it was "working closely with our sellers to ensure a smooth transition and to continue to deliver the best customer experience possible".

Consumers accessing Amazon Chinese web portal, Amazon.cn, after 18 July will see a selection of goods from its global store, Bloomberg reported.

Amazon bought Joyo.com, a Chinese books, music and video retailer, for $75m (£57.4m) in 2004. It rebranded the company as Amazon.cn in 2007.

But it has struggled to compete with dominant players JD.com and Alibaba's Tmall marketplace in China

The shift away from the world's second largest economy comes as the company pours huge investment into India.

Amazon has committed to spending $5.5bn on e-commerce in India, where it competes with local rival Flipkart.

Last year, it launched a Hindi version of its mobile website and smartphone app in an attempt to attract millions of new customers in the country.

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BEIJING, April 16 (Xinhua) -- The farm produce trade between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan reached 3.77 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, official data showed Tuesday.

The value was up from 2.31 billion dollars in 2012, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

From 2012 to 2018, 998 newly-added agricultural firms on the Chinese mainland were invested by Taiwan's merchants or farmers, the ministry said.

Farm produce trade between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan has been expanding in recent years and agricultural investment from Taiwan's merchants continues to grow, the ministry said.

So far, 29 innovation parks with incentives for Taiwan's farmers have been established in 14 provincial-level regions on the Chinese mainland. In 2018, nine of these parks started to sell more

than 60 kinds of farm produce on e-commerce platforms, reaping sales revenue of over 6.2 million yuan (about 924,000 U.S. dollars).

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BEIJING, April 16 (Xinhua) -- China's fiscal revenue rose 6.2 percent year on year to over 5.36 trillion yuan (about 800 billion U.S. dollars) in the first quarter of the year, data showed Tuesday.

The central government collected about 2.53 trillion yuan in fiscal revenue during the period, up 5.4 percent year on year, while local governments saw fiscal revenue rise 6.8 percent to around 2.83 trillion yuan, according to statistics from the Ministry of Finance (MOF).

Tax revenue saw a 5.4-percent climb to 4.67 trillion yuan, however, the growth continued to slow down. The Q1 tax revenue growth dropped 11.9 percentage points year on year.

The slide was attributed to China's newly-revised tax exemption and deduction policies, said the ministry.

In a breakdown, revenue from individual income tax plunged 29.7 percent year on year to 323.9 billion yuan. Revenue from stock trading stamp tax dipped by 4.2 percent over the same period last year to 39.7 billion yuan, while that from tariffs dropped by 4.8 percent, MOF data showed.

China's fiscal spending expanded 15 percent year on year to more than 5.86 trillion yuan in Q1, according to the ministry.

Social security and employment and education took the lion's share of fiscal spending, while expenditure on transport and energy conservation and environmental protection kept a fast-growing pace.

China will implement an employment-first policy this year, aiming to create more than 11 million new urban jobs, according to the government work report delivered to the annual session of China's top legislature on March 5.

The country will maintain a proactive fiscal policy stance in 2019, with a higher deficit-to-GDP ratio to leave policy space to address potential risks.

From April 1, the country started to slash the value-added tax in multiple industries, including manufacturing, transportation and construction, which will bother the revenue growth.

However, the preferential tax policies will ease the burden of the enterprises, stimulate market vitality and strengthen the stability of the country's macroeconomic growth, said the MOF, adding that China will meet its annual revenue growth target.

In 2018, taxes and fees levied on enterprises and individuals were reduced by around 1.3 trillion yuan as a result of multiple tax reduction policies introduced by the government.

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BEIJING, April 17 (Xinhua) -- China's retail sales of consumer goods saw steady growth in the first quarter of the year, with continued strong momentum in online sales, official data showed Wednesday.

The indicator of consumption rose 8.3 percent year on year in the January-March period, quickening from the 8.2-percent rise seen in the first two months, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

After deducting price factors, the indicator grew 6.9 percent in real terms.

In March alone, retail sales went up 8.7 percent.

Wednesday's data also showed consumption in rural areas climbed 9.2 percent, outpacing a rise of 8.2 percent in urban regions. The catering industry reported a 9.6-percent increase in revenue.

Online retail sales maintained robust growth, surging 15.3 percent in the first three months, with physical commodity sales growing 21 percent from one year earlier.

With a market of nearly 1.4 billion increasingly prosperous population, China strives to make consumption a major driver of its economic growth.
 
now I read
China's tax cut benefits more: official
Xinhua| 2019-04-23 19:24:36
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China's continued efforts to reduce taxes have benefited more businesses and individuals, an official said.

New tax cuts saved 341.1 billion yuan (around 50 billion U.S. dollars) for tax payers in the January-March period, Cai Zili with the State Taxation Administration said Tuesday at a press conference.

Cai said the cut was more inclusive and sharper than before as tens of millions of small firms started to be covered by favorable policies and private enterprises became the major beneficiary.

Besides, more than 90 million people had been exempted from the tax on their salaries by March.

The bulk of the reduction, more than 265 billion yuan, came from measures effective since the middle of 2018, including reforms in individual income tax and the lowering of value-added tax rates.

Policies rolled out this year, including tax breaks for small and micro firms and a further deduction of individual income tax, led to a reduction of around 72.2 billion yuan.
 
to me as exotic story as it gets, I haven't ever seen a durian, now read the trees got a QR code LOL so thought I might share
Malaysia wants to sell the ‘Hermes’ of durians, the Musang King, to China and rupture Thailand’s market dominance
  • On sidelines of Belt and Road Forum, Malaysian firms promoted home-grown durian products ahead of expected new rules allowing them to sell durians to China
  • Most of China’s durian imports come from Thailand, the world’s top producer
Updated: 1:33pm, 28 Apr, 2019
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Only 1 in every 100 durians sold in China now comes from
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and the country is on a mission to ramp up its market share in the stinky fruit that is both revered and reviled around the world.

Malaysia is expected to be allowed to export whole, frozen durians to China in a few months’ time after a change in Chinese policy, and its businessmen are gearing up to break
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durian dominance there.

On the sidelines of the
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in Beijing, several companies affiliated with Malaysian-listed PLS Plantations Berhad staged a showcase of durian products and new technology in growing the fruit that haters say smells like rotting flesh and gym socks.

The two-day Malaysian Durian Festival was held at an upscale hotel, in a gaily-decorated ballroom decked out with fake durians. One booth offered samples of durian chocolate while another showed pictures of “Musang King Snowy Mooncakes”. Even Prime Minister
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attended the event to show his support for the country’s push to penetrate China’s durian market.

“Malaysian durians are more expensive [than Thai durians]. But now the Chinese economy is doing so well. The Chinese are getting richer and have higher demands for what they wear, what cars they drive, and what food they eat,” Wan Mun-hoe, managing director of the Malaysian company Newleaf Plantation Berhad, said at the festival.

At present, China does not allow the import of whole durians from Malaysia, only frozen pulp.

But last August, the two governments struck a deal to allow the export of whole, frozen durians from Malaysia into China. Businessmen at the festival said the two countries were finalising the export protocols. They expect exports to finally be allowed later this year, potentially leading to a surge in Chinese demand.

“Durians are only available in major Chinese cities. Looking forward, Malaysia is going to develop large-scale durian plantations. We hope we can cope with the demand of the Chinese market” Wan said.

His company, which describes Malaysia’s famous Musang King durian as the “Hermès” of durians, currently owns 50 acres of land that is used to grow durians. In the next three years, the company will have 1,000 more acres of land leased to it to grow durians.

Newleaf Plantation Berhad has developed what it calls an “intelligent farming system” to keep track of all the durian trees’ health.

On its farmland, every tree has a QR code. Upon scanning the QR code with a device, the farmer would be able to see the health status of the trees, whether it has been watered and if fertiliser has been applied.

The central management system has the records of every trees’ age, breed, fruit counts and harvest records.

“China is opening the market for Malaysia and so our country is beginning to turn to commercial plantation farming. That’s why we are introducing intelligent farming management,” Wan said.

But growing Chinese demand could push durian prices up. In 2012, Wan said, Malaysian farmers were selling one kilogram of durians to wholesalers for 9 ringgit. Now, the price has gone up to 30 ringgit.

Eric Chan, managing director of another Malaysian company, Dulai Fruits, said his company only delivered one container of durian products to China every year in 2011. Now, it was five to six containers every month and the company is aiming to triple its sales in the next two years.

“Thailand has been exporting its durians to China for about 20 years. Their market penetration is deeper and they have much more plantation land,” Chan said.

“Malaysia has for many years focused on its palm oil business. It was only since about 10 years ago that we started exporting durians. In the past, we only exported our durians to Singapore.”

China’s durian imports increased by 15 per cent in 2017 to about 350,000 tonnes. Roughly 40 per cent of its current durian supply is from Thailand, the world’s top producer. Thailand has been exporting durians to China since 2003.

Charles Chen, director of Krillo Kakaw, a chocolate maker headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, said it had seven to eight types of durian chocolates and these were among his company’s bestsellers. The durian chocolates retail for upwards of 49 ringgit.

The company is working to develop new products using freeze-dried durian to export these to China. It is gunning for 40-50 million ringgit in sales per year for a start.

“There is a lot of curiosity towards durian products and there is growing acceptance. Durian is seen by Chinese consumers as a premium product right now but we want to find alternative ways for people to enjoy it,” he said.
 

vincent

Grumpy Old Man
Staff member
Moderator - World Affairs
to me as exotic story as it gets, I haven't ever seen a durian, now read the trees got a QR code LOL so thought I might share
Malaysia wants to sell the ‘Hermes’ of durians, the Musang King, to China and rupture Thailand’s market dominance
  • On sidelines of Belt and Road Forum, Malaysian firms promoted home-grown durian products ahead of expected new rules allowing them to sell durians to China
  • Most of China’s durian imports come from Thailand, the world’s top producer
Updated: 1:33pm, 28 Apr, 2019
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Smell it and you wouldn’t want to eat it. It smells like cat litter
 

Hendrik_2000

Lieutenant General
Smell it and you wouldn’t want to eat it. It smells like cat litter

Well it depend Durian is popular thru South east asia It is called the king of fruit. When the season stated people line up to buy it at 4 oclock in the morning
It has custard like consistency and sweet I love it It had pungent smell but I don't associate it with bath room smell
In my younger day I traveled a lot in SEA and Thailand and Malaysia has the best durian
Yum!. Knowing the sweetest and ripe durian is an art. You need experience
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Dessert with Durian
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