China industrial profits up over 30% on SOE windfall gains on April 3, 2017Profits in China’s industrial sector surged 31.5% during January and February, with the ruling Communist Party’s sprawling manufacturing business operations, propelled by a strong upstream commodities rally, responsible for half of a 234.3 billion yuan gain in earnings. Industrial profits for the two-month period topped one trillion yuan for the first time in history, thanks […]
Panic over, already! $2.9982 trillion still buys a lot of US companies on February 13, 2017At last, the moment China-watching economists like myself have been anxiously waiting for has arrived: Beijing’s massive hoard of foreign exchange reserves dipped below US$3 trillion for the first time in six years. So far, the streets around Central Hong Kong appear calm, free from crowds of economists tearing their hair out in despair. China’s […]
One yuan, two very different interest rates on January 16, 2017 The yuan took a roller coaster ride on Monday after Beijing lowered the currency’s daily reference exchange rate by a massive 594 basis points to 6.9262 yuan to the US dollar. The move partially reversed sharp gains from the previous week resulting from an ambush by Chinese authorities on short sellers of the yuan […]
Three big secrets lurking in Chinas banking system on December 17, 2016New yuan loans handed out by Chinese banks in November expanded about 10%, more than analysts had been expecting, while the broad M2 money supply figure came in at a respectable 11.4% year-on-year gain. At first glance these numbers portray an image of China’s financial system gliding along in style, buttressing resoundingly strong foreign trade, […]
Chinas yuan jumps as PBOC acts to break bear grip on December 12, 2016China’s yuan rose sharply on Tuesday, gaining a quarter of a percentage point from its previous close to 6.8623 to the US dollar shortly after 9:30 a.m. It was the biggest gain in a month as the central bank acted to break the bearish grip on the currency after the US presidential election. The offshore […]
Youre on your own, finance ministry tells bondholders on November 6, 2016Investors might want to think twice before lending money to one of China’s state-linked enterprises. That’s because the Ministry of Finance has at last pulled the plug on “implicit guarantees” for the massive pile of debt racked up by entities associated with regional governments. “The debt of local-government owned enterprises – including financing vehicles – […]