Archive for January, 2008

China’s retail sales surge to near high in November

    BEIJING, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) — China’s retail sales hit their highest level in nearly 11 years in November, rising 18.8 percent above the same period a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported on Wednesday.

    The record was set in January 1997 when retail sales increased 19.8 percent from the same period a year earlier.

    The November figure was also higher than the 18.1 percent recorded for October, a time which included the “golden week” holiday when people tend to make more purchases.

    The announcement came a day after the NBS said the country’s consumer price index, a major inflation indicator, surged to an 11-year high of 6.9 percent in November.

    Analysts said recent price increases and continued negative real interest rates were behind the accelerated retail sales growth.

    Retail sales in the first 11 months rose 16.4 percent to 8.02 trillion yuan (1.08 trillion U.S. dollars), according to the NBS.

    In 2006, China’s retail sales expanded 13.7 percent year on year.

    The NBS also revealed retail sales in urban areas rose 19.2 percent, while rural areas registered an increase of 18 percent.

    Sales of grain and cooking oil surged 48 percent, higher than the 45.1 percent in October, while meat and egg sales went up 45.3 percent, almost even with the previous month.

    Price rises in foodstuff such as pork, grain and cooking oil were still the major contributor to the nation’s accelerating trend of inflation last month.

    Oil product sales rose 22.1 percent, up from 17.8 percent in October. China raised the price of gasoline, diesel and aviation kerosene by nearly 10 percent from Nov. 1 in order to spur supply amid a shortfall.

    China continued to record robust sales growth for autos and jewellery as their annual growth rates in November stood at 35 percent and 39.2 percent respectively.

Enforcement regulations for corporate income tax announced

    BEIJING, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) — China’s State Council, or the cabinet, has announced regulations aimed at helping to enforce the country’s new corporate income tax law.

    Premier Wen Jiabao has signed a State Council order to approve the promulgation of the regulations which were published on Tuesday.

    The regulations, to take effect on Jan. 1, 2008, replace two earlier regulations promulgated by the government more than a decade ago.

    It will be the first time since 1978 that China puts domestic and foreign firms on an equal footing in income taxation in an effort to promote fair competition.

China’s CPI up 6.9% in November

 

A consumer buys some pork in a supermarket in Hefei, capital of central China’a Anhui Province, Sept. 11, 2007. China’s consumer price index (CPI) jumped by 6.9 percent in November coords=118,19,169,41 href=”http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-11/23/content_7132097.htm”>

2007 catchphrases  of China economy

The primary concerns of Chinese people with the future economy are reflected in the catchphrases. [Factbox]

China to adopt tight monetary policies 2008 China will shift its monetary policy from “prudent,” an approach it has followed for the last ten years, to “tight” in 2008. Full story

·Timeline of China’s fiscal and monetary policy

China’s foreign trade nears $2 trillion in 1st 11 months

    BEIJING, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) — China’s total foreign trade was 1.97 trillion U.S. dollars during the first 11 months of this year, up 23.6 percent from a year earlier.

China to raise reserve requirement ratio for 10th time this year

    BEIJING, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) — China will raise the reserve requirement ratio by one percentage point for commercial banks in an effort to cool the booming economy, the central bank announced Saturday.

China to adopt tight monetary policies in 2008

    BEIJING, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) — China concluded its three-day 2007 Central Economic Work Conference on Wednesday with a pledge to shift its monetary policy from “prudent,” an approach it has followed for the last ten years, to “tight.”

China aims to prevent overheated economy, curb inflation in 2008

    BEIJING, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) — The primary task of China’s 2008 economic work has been set “to prevent the economy from becoming overheated and to guard against a shift from structural price rises to evident inflation,” a key economic meeting said here Wednesday.

Large Chinese enterprises move to use copyrighted software, official says

    BEIJING, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) — More than 1,500 large Chinese enterprises have installed copyrighted software since April 2006, said Liu Binjie, director of the General Administration of Press, here on Monday.

    In April 2006, the National Copyright Administration and seven other ministries issued a joint notice urging Chinese companies to use copyrighted software.

    Central and provincial governments have investigated 3,600 enterprises. More than 1,100 companies have faced penalties for using pirated software, Liu told a conference on software copyright issues.

    Vice Premier Wu Yi, also leader of a national working group for intellectual property protection, said in a congratulatory letter to the conference that software industry was a “basic and strategic sector” of the national economic development.

    Wu said the use of copyrighted software to create a healthy and standard market environment is very important to develop the software industry.

    She reiterated that departments concerned should to take “forceful” measures to promote the use of copyrighted software.

    The meeting, attended by 300 delegates from various software companies, also heard that China was working to promote the use of legitimate software by official organizations. Government entities and institutions above the city level have installed copyrighted software since a State Council order to that effect was issued in 2004.

    China also adopted regulations in 2006 requiring computers made in China, or imported for sale here, to be pre-loaded with legitimate operating systems.

China targets key areas for further reforms in 2008

    BEIJING, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) — China’s top economic planner said Sunday that it would step up reforms in key areas such as the economic system, investment regulation and supervision, resource products pricing and national healthcare.

    ”We should further deepen reform in 2008,” Ma Kai, head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said at the annual working meeting of economic planners at all levels concluded here on Sunday.

    He said a revised edition of “List of Government-approved Investment Projects” would be effective next year. The new list featured “a project recording and evaluating system”.

    The country will promote the reform of resource products pricing and environment protection charging mechanism in a “controllable and sequential way”.

    Pricing reforms of oil and gas, whose prices are currently set by the government, will be carried out “steadily”.

    Further reforms will be carried out in the power generating and supply sectors. Railway, postal and telecommunication companies will continue to deepen their reforms.

    The authorities will figure out a blue print of medicine and health care system reform and carry out trial projects steadily.

    On Sunday’s meeting, the economic planners also addressed development of small- and mid-sized companies, encouraging the establishment of a credit guaranteeing system that will facilitate growth of those companies in regions “with mature conditions”.

    They called for improvement in legislation on a variety of issues including enterprise investment, bidding, corporate bonds and administrative law enforcement.

China’s economic plan: “shoot 2 hawks with 1 arrow”

    by Xinhua writer Wu Zhi

    BEIJING, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) — China’s top leaders have decided that reining in a red-hot economy class=”pagelink”> [1] [2] [3] [4]

Chinese vice premier urges better energy saving

    BEIJING, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) — Chinese Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan on Friday urged to save energy and boost domestic demand amid efforts to achieve a sound and rapid economic growth.

    Zeng told the national development and reform meeting in Beijing that ministries and local authorities should unveil more measures to better save energy, protect environment, and improve people’s livelihood.

    He urged the transformation of the growth mode of economy by relying more on domestic demand, self innovation, energy saving and pollution reduction.

    The vice premier said ministries and local governments should work out innovative opening-up policies to give full play to the nation’s comparative advantage and to balance its international payments.

    He also called for an improvement in fiscal and tax systems as well as macro-control efforts for a coordinated and sound economic growth.

    Ma Kai, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, told the meeting that the nation will strictly control industrial use and exports of grain while expanding imports to prevent a shift from structural price rises to evident inflation.

    Rising food prices have pushed the increase in China’s consumer price index to 6.5 percent in October, matching the 11-year-high in August and well above the 6.2 percent in September.

    ”We will boost production of necessities, including grain, edible oil, meat and other major agricultural products to ensure market supply,” Ma said.

    Ma also pledged that the government will clamp down on price rigging and offer low-income residents allowances to help offset price rises.

China’s Central gov’t to increase investment budget

    BEIJING, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) — China’s Central Government will increase its overall investment budget and continue to adjust investment structure, the nation’s top economic planning agency said on Friday.

    Ma Kai, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, said at a national development and reform meeting that after “continuous and rapid” increase in fiscal revenue in recent years, China will mainly use its fiscal expenditure to improve people’s livelihood and boost economic and social development in weak and backward areas.

    He didn’t disclose the specific figures for 2008, noting a relevant ministry is working at the budget.

    The fiscal budget for 2007 reached 2.687 trillion yuan (358.2 billion U.S. dollars), up 14.4 percent year on year.

    Ma said the larger investment will be mainly used in construction of rural regions and the western areas, energy-saving and emission reduction projects, innovation, social welfare and on major infrastructure projects.

    Ma said that the central government planned to issue smaller amounts of long-term construction debts next year.

    The 2007 Central Economic Work Conference, which finished on Wednesday, said China will maintain a “prudent” fiscal policy for the coming year.

China to collect over 60 bln yuan to finance oil subsidies

    BEIJING, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) — China will collect more than 60 billion yuan (8.1 billion U.S. dollars) in special funds from oil producers to offer subsidies to public service sectors and low-income families feeling the pinch of increasingly higher prices.

    In the first nine months, the country’s oil producers have paid 41 billion yuan into the special fund, the National Development and Reform Commission said on Thursday in a statement posted on its website.

    The special fund was launched to regulate the part of profits earned by oil producers from soaring international crude prices. The country’s domestic crude prices were roughly in line with global prices, unlike government-controlled prices for refined products.

    The commission said it had provided subsidies totaling 42 billion yuan this year for taxi drivers, low-income families challenged by higher charges for LPG and farmers affected by increased diesel prices.

    In 2006, the special fund received 45 billion yuan from oil producers. The commission said 21 billion yuan was allocated to finance subsidies.

    China has raised prices of refined oil products four times since last year. In the latest move, it raised the price of gasoline, diesel and aviation kerosene by 500 yuan per ton, a rise of almost 10 percent, starting on November 1.

    The move was aimed to close the gap between soaring international oil prices and domestic prices. This had led to a supply shortfall as some refineries stopped processing to avoid losses.

China’s power industry proposes electricity price increase

    BEIJING, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) — China Electricity Council (CEC), an organization representing the country’s power industry, has recently submitted a proposal to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) to raise electricity prices next year.

    The proposal said major coal enterprises in coal-rich provinces have issued a notice that new contracts for electricity coal in 2008 will include a price rise of more than 30 yuan (4.05 U.S. dollars) a ton. This would result in a sharp increase in electricity costs.

    In the proposal, the CEC suggested the NDRC peg electricity prices to coal prices.

    Observers noted it was difficult to predict whether the NDRC would adopt this proposal, especially with China’s currently soaring CPI growth.

    The proposal also suggested administrative regulations on coal prices, saying that if the prices continued to rise, most coal-powered electricity plants would suffer heavy loss.

    In the first nine months, statistics showed that coal price rose 25 yuan a ton from last year to 304 yuan a ton, an 8.9 percent increase over last year.

    The National Development and Reform Commission, a macroeconomic agency under the State Council, is the key department in charge of price regulation.