Courtesy of Sinocism: We hear a lot about Weibo and censorship. Baidu, which failed in its own attempt to run a microblogging service, has in some ways benefited from the rise of Sina and Tencent Weibo, as so much of the regulatory focus, pressure and costs have shifted from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0, and specifically
No surprises today with Chinese CPI printing on the button of consensus at 3.4%: The PPI, on the other hand, undershot consensus by a couple of points at -0.7%: A good result for the CPI then and some evidence of ongoing weakness in the industrial economy in the PPI although at least the sharp price
Chinese trade balance figures for April just came out and surprised to say the least, with expectations of a $9.9 billion positive balance blitzed by coming in at $18.42 billion: The year on year growth figures were not impressive. Whilst export growth remained positive, it has decelerated markedly, with y-o-y growth of only 4.9% (expected
by Michael Feller Like a pensioner on his birthday, the Australian financial media yesterday enjoyed an annual spasm of exuberance with the release of the 2012-2012 Federal Budget. Yet amid the dense pages of analysis over every minutiae of detail, few dared ask whether the prospects for the Chinese economy are a realistic backdrop for Treasury’s
If you can recall, some time ago I talked about the CBRC’s annual report on the Chinese banking system. The report said that Chinese banks are very well capitalised, with non-performing loans falling every year and capital adequacy ratio rising every year. You could have guessed that I disagree. As I have talked about previously, China simply
On Tuesday, the official PMI showed continued expansion in manufacturing. Yesterday, theHSBC/Markit China manufacturing PMI, on the other hand, remained in contractionary territory for the 6th consecutive month, with the latest reading at 49.3, slightly improving from 48.3, indicating a slower slowdown. The chart below from Michael McDonough of Bloomberg Brief slows the continued divergence in two PMIs’ headline numbers: The usual
Courtesy of ANZ • The headline PMI rebounded to 53.3 in April, lower than market expected, but higher than with March’s 53.1. • The production index rose strongly to 57.2 from 55.2 previously. • While the new orders index declined by 0.6pts to 54.5; the export order index rose 0.3pts to 52.1. • Inventories of finished goods
Hugh Hendry of Eclectica Asset Management hasn’t written for quite a while, nor has he been actively out there on the telly as his clients “ban him from media appearances”. Hendry has been bearish on China for quite a while, since he posted a video talking in his Scottish accent in front of large empty buildings in China talking
A few days ago, I mentioned that banks were undertaking stealth easing where mortgages rates have come down somewhat and mortgages are easier to come by. With March strong loan growth, stealth easing is happening even though the more aggressive easing actions like cutting reserve requirement ratio have not happened. In his latest note, Dong Tao
Although many are probably still hoping for official monetary cuts in China, credit easing appears underway anyway in mortgages. This is not completely new. In fact, some weeks ago I became aware of some banks offering mortgages with interest rates reduced by 10-15% for first-time buyers. Sina is now reporting that reduction of mortgage rates
Several bell weather US firms have reported earnings that provide an insight into the state of the Chinese economy. ABB (ABBN.VX) and Caterpillar (CAT.N) both blamed shifts in their accounts on slack Chinese demand. To start with, ABB’s bottom-line beat expectations but margins declined. The company’s presentation said that a “Weaker China offset by good growth in N America”.
The China Flash PMI is out and shows a small improvement from 48.3 in March to 49.1 in April. Ouput, new orders and exports all contracted at a slower rate: This is welcome. However, a quick look at the charts shows that the trends are all solidly sideways: The global zombie plods on! China Flash
Caijing reports that sources close to the big 4 Chinese Banks (ICBC, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, and Agricultural Bank of China) suggested that the 4 banks have lost more than RMB1 trillion of deposits, while new loans are not really growing. The hugely positive picture of above expectation new loans in March appears to be
Various investment banks have been weighing in on whether or not the end of the commodity/ steel/ metal and other super-cycles, which have been led primarily by China’s increasing demand. Credit Suisse has different teams on either side of the debate, and Citi thinks that it’s over. Now it is Nomura’s turn. Similar to Citi’s argument,
By Leith van Onselen The Economist today published an interesting article about the demographic time bomb that threatens to derail China’s economic development: Over the past 30 years, China’s total fertility rate—the number of children a woman can expect to have during her lifetime—has fallen from 2.6, well above the rate needed to hold a
The corruption and purging of Bo Xilai is illustrative of the shortcomings of China’s unsustainable growth model. After Bo Xilai was purged and as new people will be running the Chongqing government, a review of the debts outstanding for the government, including the local government financing vehicles, which are used in funding many of the infrastructure projects,
Remember Ordos, the ghost city? Thanks to its coal, the place was “booming” (sort of). Not only was it a bizarre place with a real estate “bubble” (actually, I can’t quite want to find a word to describe something which is more than a bubble) even though the place is seriously over-housed, it was also a
The People’s Bank of China has announced that is will allow more flexibility in both ways for Chinese yuan exchange rate. From 16 April (Monday) onwards, the trading band limit for USDCNY will be increased from ±0.5% away from the daily fixing to ±1% away from the daily fixing. Increasing flexibility of the exchange has been
More analysis on today’s China GDP print, this time from Phat Dragon, who had forecast a 8.2% rise instead of the printed 8.1%, This was much better than most of the commentariat, who have now dismissed their miss (8.4% consensus), focusing on the resignation of Bob Brown, with none (I’ve read all the majors on
As reported earlier, the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics published the latest GDP growth figures (along with many other things that will be mentioned below). The year-on-year GDP grow by 8.1% in real terms, missing estimates of 8.4% growth. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, GDP grew by 1.8% in real terms (seasonally adjusted, presumably), down from
Official Chinese statistics have just been released, with real GDP (gross domestic product) for the first quarter, alongside industrial production and retail sales. Here are the quick snapshots: Quarter on quarter GDP rose 1.8%, was expected to rise 1.9% (last quarter was 2%) Year on year GDP rose 8.1%, was expected to rise 8.4% (last
Exclusively from Michael Pettis most recent newsletter: In the last issue of my newsletter I spoke about the economic constraints that limit China’s political options. I argued that regardless of what Beijing claimed it wanted to do, its economic choices were largely limited either to maintaining the existing growth model, thereby running the risk of a
The People’s Banks of China has published the latest set of monetary statistics for March 2012. M2 Money supply grew by 13.4% yoy, up from 13.0% yoy in February, accelerating for two consecutive months, and was above market consensus of 13.0%. M1 money supply growth increased by 4.4% yoy, below consensus. New Chinese yuan loans increased
From ANZ China’s March trade data: Export growth beat market expectations, gaining 8.9% y/y, down from February’s 18.4%, but above market expectations of 7.0%. Shipments to the US and emerging economies remained upbeat, while exports to the EU recorded a smaller y/y decline. • Import growth surprised on the downside, gaining only 5.3% y/y in March, compared with the last
Find below a useful note on yesterday’s from ANZ on yesterday’s Chinese inflation numbers for March which saw the CPI rise 0.2% to 3.6% largely on accelerating food prices. The PPI deflated for the month, down 0.3% to minus 0.3% suggesting ongoing weakness in the China’s industrial economy. ANZ now sees no new monetary easing
Courtesy of Sinocism: China Shows U.S. How to Push for Carbon Capture – Bloomberg – in China, carbon capture marches steadfastly ahead, as an article in the May issue of Bloomberg Markets magazine reports. A pilot project by China Huaneng Group Corp. has been able to remove carbon from coal-plant exhaust for about $39 per ton
From our alliance partner and provider of daily Chinese links comes this news on the actions of our great and powerful northerly friend: Earlier today Hong Huang recommended the site to her 4.3m Sina Weibo followers. Within a few hours Sinocism was blocked by China’s Great Firewall, the first time I have had any content, let alone
An exclusive excerpt from Michael Pettis’ most recent newsletter: Last week’s news was dominated by the sudden but not wholly unexpected removal of Bo Xilai as mayor of Chongqing. After the initial shock wore off, much of the speculation within China has moved on to what his ousting says about the evolution of power
Citi has joined the recent debate about whether the commodity super cycle is finished (or nearly so) with an argument in the affirmative. Bulls like to point to the fact that the apparent intensity of use for steel (in terms of kg per capita) for China is still well below some other countries at their peak. However,
The HSBC Flash Manufacturing PMI for March was just released and was disappointing – 48.1 – anything below 50 means contraction. This is the 5th consecutive month of contraction, last month the PMI was flat at 49.7 points. The downtrend is obvious. What is not so obvious is the mechanism behind the slowdown: Importantly, new
