Today’s data shows a bit of a bump on the road to recovery, with GDP for Q1 coming in below forecasts at 7.7% (http://on.wsj.com/114jWC6). Other figures out today, also point to problems. Retail sales growth slowed, according to Xinhua, to “12.4 pct y-o-y to 887.22 billion USD in Q1, down 2.4 percentage points”, while industrial […]

There has been a lot of economic news recently, and many are waiting for baited breath for the year-end results. Below are some of the latest issues and indicators. While GDP growth is on target for the (lucky??) 8%, and while there has been some positive movement on exports and retail sales, there are also […]

1. Environment: “It is a disgraceful lifestyle to drive a BMW but have only dirty water to drink”. China’s environment minister http://bit.ly/3qXGp Comment: The environment is looming large as a topic, and is also getting a lot of fiscal stimulus attention. For more on what he said, and on “green” ODI and carbon taxes, see […]

After a short Easter break, the Tweets are back. Over the past week (or two) we have noted a few of our favourite Tweets. 1. Regional Cities: Growth hot spots: Baotou, Hohhot, Yantai…lots of T2 RT @eChinacities: How do the Cities of China Rate Globally? http://tinyurl.com/cvkzsw about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck Comment: As the […]

Briefly….the Top Ten Tweets of the past week bring us an FDI-ODI-GDP Coke cocktail for un- (and under-)employed graduates and reactionary consumers – no wonder they have time to send 607 billion texts, and apply for plenty of patents! 1. Another China GDP downgrade from 8% to 6-7% – RT @BusinessDesk: Guardian business: OECD cuts […]

As the Chinese economy joins the general global gloom, trade tensions have been rising. The Washinton Post notes that: “U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner accused China of “manipulating” its currency …The U.S. Trade Representative’s office, in a harshly worded and wide-ranging complaint to the World Trade Organization in December, alleged that China uses cash […]

While Premier Wen Jiabao has targeted 8 percent growth for China in 2009, there are plenty of doubters. AP reports that the situation may be worse than official figures suggest: “Plunging exports. Factory closures. More than 20 million people thrown out of work. Official data showing that China’s economy is cooling but still growing strongly […]

China’s climb up the value chain has been mirrored by its climb up the global economic rankings. Having overtaken the UK in 2006, it has now (based on the revised figures) passed Germany, according to the Financial Times: “China overtook Germany to become the world’s third-largest economy in 2007 after the Chinese authorities revised upwards […]

As the global slowdown continues, China (in contrast to the recent upward restatement for 2007) is showing signs of slowing – in the last quarter of 2008 GDP growth was 6.8%, which is slow by recent Chinese standards. MarketWatch reports: “Gross domestic product expanded 6.8% in the October-to-December period, compared to a year ago, easing […]

Back in 2007 we reported on how China restated its 2006 GDP figures, and suggested that statistics be treated with caution. Now Xinhua has just reported another revision, this time for the 2007 GDP figure: “The National Bureau of Statistics released a revised growth rate for 2007’s gross domestic product. It went from 11.9 percent […]