China to Spend About US$230 billion on Aviation Sector
Source: AFP China plans to invest more than RMB1.5 trillion (US$228.2 billion) in the aviation industry over the next five years to meet surging demand as its economy booms, the sector’s top regulator said Thursday. By 2015, the country is expected to have more than 220 commercial airports and its fleet size will expand to...
China Orders Banks to Assign More Risk to Local-government Loans
Source: Bloomberg China told banks, which have lent at least US$1.2 trillion to local governments, to recalculate capital levels by March 31 to account for higher risk weightings on such loans, two people with knowledge of the matter said. Assigning risk weightings that are as much as triple existing ones for loans to local-government financing...
Chinese Cities Limit Home Purchases as Government Intensifies Curbs
Source: Bloomberg Shanghai and Guangzhou joined China’s capital, Beijing, in announc- ing restrictions on home purchases, responding to property curbs imposed by the central government aimed at preventing a housing bubble. The two cities will ban local residents who own two or more homes from buying more property and non-local homeowners from making additional purchases,...
China Urges US to Treat Chinese Firms Fairly
Source: AFP China on Thursday urged the United States to treat its firms fairly after Washington voiced concerns over security in its review of Chinese tech giant Huawei’s takeover of a US computer firm. The US Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS) has asked Huawei to go back on a US$2 million deal last May in...
China’s January Home Prices Defy Curbs
Source: Bloomberg China’s January new home prices rose from a year earlier in all but two of the 70 cities monitored by the government, defying property curbs to keep housing affordable. New home prices in the capital Beijing advanced 6.8 per cent in Janu- ary from last year, while Shanghai climbed 1.5 per cent, the...
China’s Foreign Direct Investment Up 23.4 Per cent in January
Source: AFP Foreign direct investment in China rose 23.4 per cent in January from a year earlier, the government said on Thursday, despite an official campaign to stem liquidity and control inflation. China attracted US$10.03 billion in foreign investment last month, commerce ministry spokesman Yao Jian told reporters. The figures indicated that a revival in...
China Says January Inflation Remains High at 4.9 Per cent
China said Tuesday its inflation rate stayed persistently high at 4.9 per cent in January, sparking analyst predictions that the government would take further aggressive fiscal steps to cool prices. Source: AFP The consumer price index, the key gauge of inflation in the world’s second-largest economy, was “lower than market expectations” according to the National...
China’s Trade Surplus Drops 53.5 Per cent in January
Source: AFP China’s politically sensitive trade surplus fell 53.5 per cent to US$6.45 billion in January as both exports and imports surged ahead of the country’s Lunar New Year holidays, the nation said on Monday. Exports increased 37.7 per cent from a year earlier in January, while imports jumped 51 per cent, the General Administration...
China to Tighten Regulation of Rare Earths
Source: AFP China will tighten control over its rare earths industry, the latest step in a campaign to bring the lucrative metals under stricter regulation that has caused concern overseas, the country said on Wednesday. It was not immediately clear how the move would affect supplies and exports of the metals ‒ a collection of...
China Regional Banks Told to Hike Reserves
Source: AFP China’s central bank has ordered some small- and medium-sized banks to raise their reserves in the latest in a series of such hikes aimed at reining in inflation, according to state media. The reserve requirement ratio hike, which effectively reduces the amount of money banks can lend, is mainly targeted at regional institutions,...
China January-February Inflation May Top 5 Per cent
Source: AFP China’s inflation could exceed 5 per cent for the first two months of the year, a government economist warned in comments published by state media on Thursday. The forecast by Ba Shusong would mark an acceleration from December, when the country’s consumer price index rose 4.6 per cent from a year earlier due...
PetroChina Pays About US$5.4 billion for Encana Gas Stake
Source: Reuters Canada’s Encana Corp will sell half of a prolific shale gas project to PetroChina for about US$5.4 billion in the largest Chinese investment in a Canadian energy asset yet. After nine months of talks, Encana, one of North America’s largest gas producers, and state-owned PetroChina agreed to form a 50-50 joint venture to...
