China Economy Forum

[JSCh]

NBS data point to strong economy
By Xin Zhiming | China Daily | Updated: 2018-04-18 11:26

Indicating the Chinese economy remained resilient at the start of the year, the nation's GDP registered solid growth in the first quarter, expanding by 6.8 percent year-on-year, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday.

GDP reached 19.88 trillion yuan ($3.17 trillion) in the first three months.

"The economy is off to a good start," NBS spokesman Xing Zhihong said at a news conference. "The national economy has maintained stable development momentum."

The GDP growth rate has been within the range of 6.7 percent to 6.9 percent for straight 11 quarters, with the jobless rate remaining at low levels.

The NBS data showed that retail sales helped shore up stable growth, climbing by 9.8 percent in the first quarter.

Fixed-asset investment increased by 7.5 percent in the same period, down by 0.4 percentage point from the January-February period.

Industrial output growth reached 6.8 percent in the first quarter, down by 0.4 percentage point from the first two months.

The NBS also said that the surveyed unemployment rates in the first three months were 5 percent in January, down by 0.2 percentage point year-on-year; 5 percent in February, down 0.4 percentage point from a year earlier; and 5.1 in March, down 0.1 percentage point year-on-year.

"First-quarter GDP data is on the positive side," said Zhu Haibin, chief China economist of J.P. Morgan. "It reduced the concern that economic activity has slowed down. If you look at domestic activity indicators, they are holding up very well," he told Reuters.

Despite weak fixed-asset investment growth, real estate development investment increased by 10.4 percent year-on-year in the first three months, beating market expectations and climbing by 0.5 percentage point from the first two months, the NBS said.

Growth of investment in real estate development shows that developers remain upbeat about future sales, said Liu Dongliang, an economist of the China Merchants Bank. "Bolstered by strong real estate investment growth, fixed-asset investment will not slump as some have worried about."

The first-quarter data show that China's economic resilience remains and investors should not become pessimistic toward the country's growth prospects, although the wholeyear GDP growth may ease mildly, said Liu. "It is not hard for China to achieve its GDP growth target for this year, and currently we do not see the possibility of China easing monetary policy (to support growth)."

China set a GDP growth target of 6.5 percent for this year in March.

But Liu warned that some factors, such as possible escalation of China-US trade disputes and the easing growth of infrastructure investment due to regulatory tightening on bank loans, should be closely monitored in judging the growth trend in the second quarter.

Liu Yuanchun, an economist and vice-president of Renmin University of China, said China needs to prepare for uncertainties such as possible export shocks from China-US trade disputes and domestic debt. "External and internal uncertainties may worsen economic fluctuations and cause changes in market expectations."

Wang Yanfei contributed to this story.

 

[Logam42]

Hey all, just wanted to pop in and ask if China has mandatory medical insurance like Obamacare? If so, what is it like, how is it financed, and what does it cover?

Wanted to ask since Indonesia's system has a large deficit right now and was wondering how other nations handle the problem of providing affordable healthcare to a huge population.

 

[cirr]

China's Q1 consumer confidence index reaches 10-year high: report

2018-05-25 16:05:01 Xinhua Editor : Gu Liping

Chinese consumers reported confidence levels at a ten-year high in the first quarter of this year, according to global market intelligence provider Nielsen's latest survey.

The Nielsen's China's Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) climbed one point quarter on quarter to 115 points in Q1, the highest score over the past 10 years.

Nielsen's CCI index measures perceptions of local job prospects, personal finance and immediate spending intentions. Consumer confidence levels above and below a baseline of 100 indicate degrees of optimism and pessimism, respectively.

The steady expansion shows China's economy developed in a steady manner as the three main drivers of economic growth -- consumption, investment and exports -- continued their strong run, according to Nielsen.

Official data showed that China's GDP growth remained stable in the first quarter, up 6.8 percent year on year, which laid a solid foundation for CCI's steady growth. Consumption contributed 77.2 percent of the country's Q1 economic expansion.

"As China's economy maintains steady growth, innovation and emerging industries are creating opportunity and improving overall employment expectations," said Tina Ding, vice president of Nielsen China, adding that domestic demand has become the main driver for economic development and continues to be a catalyst behind Chinese consumers' willingness to spend.

Nielsen pointed out that CCI's Q1 increase was a result of a combination of job prospects, personal finance, and willingness to spend.

Specifically, job prospects surged to 77 in the first quarter, three points higher from the last quarter. Personal finance and the willingness to spend maintained steady growth, and both figures increased one point quarter on quarter to 71 and 62, respectively, the Nielsen report showed.

http://www.ecns.cn/news/economy/2018-05-25/detail-ifyuqkxh5546838.shtml

 

[JSCh]

Chinese A-shares debuts in MSCI
By Paul Welitzkin in New York | China Daily USA | Updated: 2018-06-01 14:53

A list of 234 China A-shares will be added to MSCI’s market indexes, including the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, on June 1. [Photo/VCG]

China's ascension on to the global financial stage continues as index-provider MSCI Inc included Chinese mainland-traded Chinese equities or A-shares.

Starting Friday, MSCI will add 234 Chinese A-share companies to its indices, including the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, which has about $1.5 trillion in assets benchmarked to it. Asset managers, pension funds, insurers and individual investors hold passive investments like an exchange-traded fund or mutual fund that track an MSCI index like emerging markets.

Bin Shi, head of China equities at UBS Asset Management, said MSCI's inclusion of A-shares confirms China's economic reform progress.

"Up to now, we feel that many global investors haven't fully recognized this fact," he said. "Now that inclusion has happened, investors will realize how far programs like the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Connects have gone to integrate

China's on-shore markets with the global financial "system."

When MSCI announced it would add the Chinese shares a year ago, it triggered a rally in'Chinese blue chips. Sherwood Zhang, portfolio manager of the Matthews China Dividend Fund, said that recent market history indicates that when the emerging market index adds new countries, it actually underperforms.

"Pakistan is a good example, with the index underperforming when the country was added," Zhang explained. "The reason is that active investors typically start investing in the market before passive investors, who are driven more by the benchmark.

"When inflows from passive investors start to enter the market, valuations begin
to rise and fundamental investors often start to take profits. However, there is one difference when it comes to A-share inclusion, in that there will be a phased-in approach and so the passive inflows might be more gradual."

"The fear of a US-China trade war might affect global investors' sentiment towards China, but this is unlikely to impact MSCI's decision," Zhang said.

Brendan Ahern, chief investment officer of Krane Funds "Advisors, noted that the stocks being added have the largest sector weight in financial, industrial, consumer staples and consumer discretionary sectors.

"It is important for investors to recognize that MSCI is adding only a small weight to these 234 companies, though it will grow to be an additional 17 percent more exposure to China upon full inclusion," Ahern said.

"This will raise China's weight in MSCI Emerging Markets from 30 percent to over 40 percent. I expect the inclusion process to take between three to five years."

UBS' Shi said the MSCI inclusion is likely to spur more reforms in China.

"China's government is committed to further reforms, as shown by recent news on opening up the financial sector to foreign investors, increasing daily trading quotas on the Stock Connects, and potentially extending the Stock Connect program to London," Shi said.

"As China opens further, we expect A-shares to account for a larger share of global benchmarks in the future," he added.

 

[JSCh]

 

[JSCh]

Xiaomi files China’s first CDR application
CGTN
2018-06-08 22:07 GMT+8

Xiaomi, China’s smartphone maker, submitted the country’s first application on Thursday to issue a CDR (Chinese Depositary Receipt), according to Chinese securities regulator’s website.

The Beijing-based company filed a prospectus for an IPO in Hong Kong last month with as much as 10 billion US dollars expected to be raised.

The IPO is set to be the largest listing globally in four years and one of the first in the city under new rules designed to attract tech listings, according to Reuters.

China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) launched rules on issuing CDRs late Wednesday, allowing domestic flotation of overseas-listed innovators and also encouraging fast-growing companies to list at home.

If Xiaomi becomes the first one to dual-list through CDR, its CDR portion would be likely to account for up 30 percent of its total fundraising size, Reuters reported.

Ambition in globalization

The market’s high expectation is backed by Xiaomi’s strong sales.

In the first quarter of 2018, Xiaomi is again the world's fourth largest smartphone brand in terms of shipments, with a year-on-year growth rate of 87.8 percent, according to the latest report from the International Data Corporation (IDC).

It has been working on expanding its market across the world.

After China and India, Xiaomi is trying to get a foothold in Europe, starting with opening a store in Madrid last November.

Xiaomi also plans to enter Britain, Germany and the Netherlands although faced with fierce competition from Apple, Samsung, Chinese brands Huawei and ZTE.

 

[JSCh]

Sunday, July 01, 2018, 12:06
Asia economies discuss trade pact amid rising protectionism
By Associated Press

Asian trade ministers pose for a photo during the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) meeting in Tokyo, July 1, 2018. (SADAYUKI GOTO/KYODO NEWS VIA AP)

TOKYO — Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday called for an early conclusion of a regional trade pact that ensures free and rules-based commerce in the face of an increasingly protectionist United states under President Donald Trump.

As we are faced with concerns of the rise of protectionism in the world, all of us in Asia must unite, and our future depends on whether we can keep hoisting our flagship principle of free and fair trade.

Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister, Japan​

Japan co-chairs the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, with Singapore, and seeks to take leadership in shaping the pact as an alternative to a Pacific Rim free-trade grouping that Trump abandoned early this year.

In his opening remarks to a meeting of 16 Asian trade ministers, Abe said a pact among the countries that together make up half the global population has an enormous growth potential.

READ MORE: RCEP leaders reaffirm pledge to reach FTA agreement

"As we are faced with concerns of the rise of protectionism in the world, all of us in Asia must unite, and our future depends on whether we can keep hoisting our flagship principle of free and fair trade," Abe said at the meeting in Tokyo.

He said RCEP is increasingly getting more attention from the rest of the world amid concerns of protectionism, so "Let us be as one and achieve a free, fair and rules-based market in this region."

Trump, who says he prefers bilateral deals, has pulled the US out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, leaving the remaining 11 countries from Chile to New Zealand to work on a revamped version of that pact.

Trump has imposed high tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and has threatened to add automobiles to reduce America's trade deficit.

ALSO READ: China pledges to work for early conclusion of RCEP

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks during the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) meeting in Tokyo, July 1, 2018. Trade ministers from 16 Asian countries are meeting in Tokyo on a regional trade pact, highlighting efforts to ensure free and rules-based commerce in the face of an increasingly protectionist United States under President Donald Trump. (SADAYUKI GOTO/KYODO NEWS VIA AP)

Japan, already hit by increased US steel and aluminum tariffs, has told the World Trade Organization (WTO) it may retaliate against US goods totaling about 50 billion yen (US$450 million). Japan's government on Friday warned the US Department of Commerce that a higher US tariff on auto imports could backfire, jeopardizing hundreds of thousands of American jobs created by Japanese automobile industry-related companies, raising prices for US consumers and causing a disaster for the US and global economy.

Trump's moves have resonated in Asia, where many countries have prospered thanks to free trade and the expansion of global supply chains.

Asian trade ministers sit during the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) meeting in Tokyo, July 1, 2018. (SADAYUKI GOTO/KYODO NEWS VIA AP)

Japan hopes to conclude the RCEP pact by the end of this year. Members of the initiative, launched in 2013, however still struggle with issues including tariffs, trade in services and investment rules, as well as protection for intellectual property rights.

RCEP also includes Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Korea.

 

[JSCh]

China has cut tariffs five times on daily consumer goods since 2015
Source:Globaltimes.cn Published: 2018/6/29 18:00:28

 

[JSCh]

China, India could see biggest benefit from APTA tariff cut: experts
By Campos Santiago Source:Global Times Published: 2018/7/1 20:53:39

Rise in imports set to increase regional integration

Tariffs on thousands of products from Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) member countries have been cut, effective from Sunday, China's Ministry of Commerce said in a public statement, a move that will help integrate regional economies as China implements its latest round of opening-up and pushes to expand its imports.

"China needs more suppliers of goods given the recent trade troubles with the US," said Lin Guijun, vice president at the University of International Business and Economics.

"Reducing tariffs will open China's large and growing import market to countries in the region, which will help their economic growth and further integrate the regional economies, as well as helping projects along the routes of the Belt and Road [B&R] initiative in the region," Lin told the Global Times on Sunday.

The six members of APTA - China, India, South Korea, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Laos - will slash tariffs by an average of 33 percent on 10,312 product categories.

Laos and Bangladesh, the two least developed countries in the bloc, will enjoy further reductions of up to 86 percent for more than 1,000 products. Experts noted that this round of trade liberalization will be beneficial for all parties.

"The economy of China and those of the other APTA members are very complementary," Chen Fengying, an expert at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, explained to the Global Times on Sunday.

"China needs to increase its imports, so it is only natural that we give better access to countries with which we have good relations," noted Chen.

China and India, the biggest countries in APTA, might see the biggest effects from the tariff reduction, according to Lin.

"The recent visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to China and now this round of tariff cuts show that relations between China and India are growing more stable. India has a very considerable economic weight, and we hope the two countries can strengthen their cooperation to help economic development in the region," said Lin.

Other tariff cuts announced by China earlier this year also came into force on Sunday, including tariffs on automobiles and consumer items such as food.

A tariff cut on fish imports will provide savings of 70 million Norwegian krone ($8.6 million), reported Norwegian news site Dagens Næringsliv on Saturday.

Norway has shown support for the B&R initiative and is a founding member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

 

[JSCh]

China’s sovereign wealth fund surpasses $941.4 bln: CIC annual report
CGTN's Liu Jing
2018-07-09 18:27 GMT+8

China Investment Corporation (CIC)’s overseas investments hit a record high of 17.59 percent net return denominated in USD, according to the annual report 2017 of CIC which released on Monday.

According to the report, by the end of 2017, CIC's overseas investments had generated a net cumulative annualized return of 5.94 percent.

Based in Beijing, the total assets of CIC, the country's sovereign wealth fund surpassed 941.4 billion US dollars as of December, 2017, which translated into a cumulative annualized growth rate of the state-owned capital had reached 14.51 percent.

Based in Beijing, the total assets of CIC had surpassed $941.4 billion as of December, 2017. /CGTN Photo

Tu Guangshao, Vice Chairman and President of CIC, said that In terms of scale, it is equivalent to re-creating three CIC companies after ten years' development.

CIC, founded in 2007 with a registered capital of 200 billion US dollars, is a wholly state-owned vehicle that helps diversify China’s foreign exchange holdings and seek maximum returns for its shareholders within acceptable risk tolerance.

43.6 percent of CIC's overseas investment was in public equities by the end of 2017, followed by alternative assets, fixed incomes, cash and others, the report said. Around two-thirds of the investment was externally managed.

Moreover, talking about the domestic equity, CIC said that by the end of 2017, state-owned financial capital under Central Huijin's management had reached 4.1 trillion yuan (about 619 billion US dollars) the total assets of Central Huijin's holding companies were 112 trillion yuan, representing a year-on-year growth of 8 percent.

“This year marks the 40th anniversary since China embarked on its economic program of reform and opening-up. For CIC, it will be the juncture for journeying into its second decade,” Tu said.

“To thrive and prosper, CIC will advance new development plans, build institutional capacity, and implement new ways for outbound investment and state-owned financial capital management.”

 

[bobsm]

Trade Barriers Will Not Stop China’s Rise
Jul 9, 2018 ADAIR TURNER

If, back in the 1980s and 1990s, the US government, rather than arguing for Chinese economic opening, had prohibited any US company from investing there, China’s rise would have been significantly delayed, though not permanently prevented. Because that did not happen, China’s rise is now self-sustaining.

LONDON – There are widespread worries that US President Donald Trump’s protectionism will erode the long-term benefits of global trade. There are also hopes, mostly among Trump’s supporters – including many US companies – that tough policies can prevent China from becoming America’s technological equal. But worries about the long-term impact of reduced global trade may be exaggerated, and the hope of keeping China down has no chance of being fulfilled.

Trade occurs for three reasons. For starters, countries have different inherent resources: some have oil, others copper; some grow bananas, others wheat. If that trade were stopped, global prosperity would suffer. But trade in commodities and agricultural goods actually counts for a minor share of total trade, and will undoubtedly continue to do so.

Trade also reflects differences in labor costs. Low-cost countries produce labor-intensive manufactured goods, using machinery imported from high-labor-cost countries. As economists such as MIT’s David Autor have shown the impact of this in developed countries can be both bad for some workers and good for company profits. But it can be extremely good for any developing country that fosters a fruitful balance of inward investment and local entrepreneurship and uses the proceeds of export-led growth to invest in infrastructure and skills. China’s dramatic economic success would have been impossible without trade initially driven by labor-cost differences.

In the future, however, this type of trade will probably become less important. With wages in China now rising rapidly, its labor-cost advantage is fast diminishing. And while many people assume that manufacturing will then move to other low-wage countries – say, in Africa – much of it may return to advanced economies, though to highly automated factories that create very few jobs.

Finally, specialization and economies of scale in manufacturing, research and development, and brands generate trade between equally rich countries. European luxury cars are exported to the US, Harley Davidsons are imported into Europe, and multiple highly specialized items of capital equipment are traded in both directions.

Once these trade connections are in place, any sudden change in tariffs will be severely disruptive. So Trump’s policies undoubtedly pose a major short-term threat to global growth. But in the long term, trade between continents of roughly equal income per capita is less crucial to prosperity than often assumed.

The key issue is how large an economic area is needed to foster economies of scale and complex integrated supply chains while still maintaining intense competition among multiple firms. If a country like Ireland, with a population of five million, tried to be self-sufficient in all goods, its income would be a fraction of today’s level. Even if much larger Britain, France, or Germany attempted autarky, the hit to productivity and living standards would be very large.

But China’s continental economy of 1.4 billion people could achieve almost all possible economies of scale while still maintaining intense internal competition; in principle, India could, too. The United States, with 300-plus million people, would suffer only slightly if it exported and imported little beyond its borders, and the same is true for the European Union’s single market of 520 million.

Beyond some point, the potential benefits of wider trade between equally rich countries inevitably decline. If there was less trade among the continental-scale economies of China, the US, and Europe in 2050 than there is today, the direct impact on living standards would be small.

What would be lost without global trade – and even more so without investment flows – would be the transfer of knowledge, technology, and best practices. China’s economic takeoff began with labor-cost arbitrage, but has been sustained by massive knowledge transfer. And while a small element of that transfer reflected industrial espionage, the vast majority was automatic, legal, and inevitable.

Chinese workers and managers employed by Western companies learned new techniques. Suppliers had to meet high standards, and local entrepreneurs could then draw on quality supply chains to compete. Joint ventures inevitably led to knowledge transfer to local partners, and Western companies willingly entered them to gain access to China’s huge internal market.

The US is now worried about China’s rising technological prowess. Businesses regret the loss of economic rents that arise from superior technology and intellectual property; and national security hawks worry about the potential geopolitical consequences of America’s eroding technological edge. Tariffs on Chinese goods are in part a response to such concerns, and limits on Chinese acquisitions of American high-tech companies address this perceived threat directly.

But it is simply too late. If, back in the 1980s and 1990s, the US government, rather than arguing for Chinese economic opening, had prohibited any US company from investing there, China’s rise would have been significantly delayed, though not permanently prevented.

Because that did not happen, China’s rise is now self-sustaining. A huge and increasingly affluent domestic market will make exports less vital to growth. Rapidly rising wages are creating strong incentives for best-practice application of robotics, and China’s companies are becoming cutting-edge innovators in artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, and renewable energy. And President Xi Jinping’s “Made in China 2025” program will help foster a shift to high-value manufacturing supported by Chinese domestic R&D. Even if the US now slammed the trade and investment doors shut, it would make little difference to China’s rising economic and political power.

That is not true of poorer developing economies, such as India and all of Africa, which hope to emulate China’s rapid rise. These economies already face the threat that automation will foreclose job creation in export-oriented factories. The most important priority amid today’s Trump-induced turmoil is to ensure that such challenges are not exacerbated by harmful restrictions on trade.


https://www.project-syndicate.org/c...-no-longer-stop-china-by-adair-turner-2018-07

 

[TaiShang]

Because that did not happen, China’s rise is now self-sustaining. A huge and increasingly affluent domestic market will make exports less vital to growth. Rapidly rising wages are creating strong incentives for best-practice application of robotics, and China’s companies are becoming cutting-edge innovators in artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, and renewable energy. And President Xi Jinping’s “Made in China 2025” program will help foster a shift to high-value manufacturing supported by Chinese domestic R&D. Even if the US now slammed the trade and investment doors shut, it would make little difference to China’s rising economic and political power.

That is not true of poorer developing economies, such as India and all of Africa, which hope to emulate China’s rapid rise. These economies already face the threat that automation will foreclose job creation in export-oriented factories. The most important priority amid today’s Trump-induced turmoil is to ensure that such challenges are not exacerbated by harmful restrictions on trade.


https://www.project-syndicate.org/c...-no-longer-stop-china-by-adair-turner-2018-07

But Indians jump up and down any time the US imposes tariffs on China. In their mind, what does not come to China should end up in India. Why? Because India is not a red tape haven, not inefficient, does not suffer from bad infrastructure and logistics, and has a world-class work force.

But, put that aside, the trade war by the US has come at the right moment for China. This is a strange case in which a declining major power facilitates (for decades) the emergence of another major power.

The US does things at the right time to facilitate China's rise. Like they did in the SCS. Now they are doing with trade. In the near future, likely they will be doing with respect to Taiwan province.

 

[Jlaw]

But Indians jump up and down a

thats what monkeys do aside from shitting on the streets

 

[JSCh]

NBS data shows China’s economy remains sound despite trade row
By Chu Daye Source:Global Times Published: 2018/7/16 20:09:41

China's economy grew by 6.7 percent year-on-year in the second quarter, 0.1 percentage points lower than in the first quarter, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Monday.

In the first half of 2018, the country's economy grew by 6.8 percent, NBS said.

That was the 12th consecutive quarterly performance between 6.7 and 6.9 percent, and was well above the government's 6.5 percent annual growth target.

During the first half of the year, medium and large industrial companies grew by 6.7 percent year-on-year.

The service sector expanded by 7.6 percent, while fixed-asset investment grew by 6 percent, according to NBS.

Trade row impact

The economic data comes as trade tensions rise between China and the US, the world's largest economy.

NBS spokesperson Mao Shengyong told reporters that the impact of Sino-US trade tensions was limited during the first half of the year.

"If there is any impact, it is relatively limited," Mao said. "We will monitor the situation in the second half of the year before reaching a conclusion."

Cong Yi, an economics professor at the Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, said the limited impact from the China-US trade row proves China's successful economic transformation since 2013.

"The contribution of exports to growth has been drastically reduced from over 60 percent to about 30 percent. Trade with countries and regions other than the US has been successfully implemented, and the importance of the US as a major export destination has been gradually reduced in the past years," Cong told the Global Times on Monday.

Since domestic demand and new growth engines have spearheaded the growth momentum, the trade tensions have not had a major impact on China's economic growth, Cong said.

Lian Ping, an economist at the Bank of Communications, said in a research note that the impact of US tariffs should not be overstated.

The US has imposed tariffs on products from the EU, Canada, Mexico, India, Russia and China.

When US consumers feel the weight of these tariffs, there will be pressure in the US on the Trump administration to change course.

Flexible Chinese policies and the already depreciated yuan will also help China absorb the impact of the trade row, Lian said.

Mao said the trade row unilaterally started by the US will have an impact on both economies, disrupt global supply chains, thus affecting global economic recovery and the continued growth of global trade.

Second half pressure

Mao also said despite rising uncertainties overseas and the domestic economic transformation reaching a crucial stage, the nation's economy will continue to sustain stable and positive growth, with encouraging signs in consumption and investment.

Mao said investment in manufacturing and real estate is expected to sustain growth in the second half of the year. The period will also see fast-tracked infrastructure projects.

The growth in consumption is being led by rising household incomes, a structural shift toward consumption and increasing imports.

Niu Li, director of the State Information Center's Macroeconomic Research Office, told the Global Times on Monday that the 6.8 percent growth rate is one of the fastest growth rates among major economies, and offers some room for adjustments in the second half, as the annual GDP target has been set at around 6.5 percent.

"Besides the trade row, the slowdown in global economic growth, upheavals in Argentina and Venezuela, and domestic campaigns on deleveraging and phasing out outdated industrial capacity are also likely to put pressure on second half growth," Niu said.

However, with help from stimulus measures, domestic demand will enjoy considerable room for growth, Niu said, provided that incomes continue to rise.

Cong agrees, saying the domestic market has enough room to accommodate an upgrade in domestic industries and a structural transformation.

Liu Dongliang, a senior analyst at China Merchants Bank, told the Global Times in an email on Monday that further deleveraging may slow economic growth, prompting a discussion on implementing stabilizing measures.

 

[JSCh]

China accelerates FTA negotiations with 13 underway
Xinhua Finance in Beijing
2018-07-30 10:08

China is now engaged in 13 free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations, including the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the China-Japan-ROK FTA, the China-Norway FTA, the China-Israel FTA, the China-Panama FTA, and the China-Singapore FTA upgrade, said Gao Feng, spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce (MOC), quoted by the Xinhua-run Economic Information Daily on Monday.

In addition, China is also conducting joint research of the FTA feasibility or upgrade with ten countries, Gao added.

China hopes to build a high-standard free trade area network that is in line with its own development level, and work with free trade partners to enhance the level of liberalization and facilitation of goods, services and investment, jointly cultivate global markets, further promote the construction of an open world economy, and make contributions to stable and healthy development of the global economy, said Gao.

Since 2002, China has signed 16 FTAs with 24 countries and regions, with its free trade partners throughout Asia, Oceania, South America and Europe.

Recently, the country has been vigorously promoting the FTA negotiations.

From July 22 to 27, the 23rd round of RCEP negotiations was held in Bangkok, Thailand.

On July 13, a China-ROK FTA negotiation was held in Beijing. The two sides held further consultations on service trade and investment, and made positive progress in the negotiation.

From July 4 to July 6, the seventh round of negotiations on the China-Singapore FTA upgrade was held in Beijing. The two sides held consultations on issues such as service trade, investment, and rules of origin, trade relief and economic cooperation.