Manufacturing maintains growth arc
July 2, 2009
Related Posts:
Hong Kong – No. 1 freest economy
February 13, 2009
Hong Kong – Hong Kong was on Tuesday ranked the world’s freest economy for the 15th consecutive year in a survey by the US think-tank the Heritage Foundation.
Singapore was again ranked second in the annual study, followed by Australia, Ireland and New Zealand. The US was ranked sixth, one place lower than last year.
At the opposite end of the survey, North Korea was ranked the world’s most restricted economy, followed by Zimbabwe, Cuba, Myanmar and Eritrea.
Hong Kong scored 90 out of 100 in the rankings, 0.3 points more than in 2008 and some 30 points above the world average of 59.5 points.
Of the 10 individual areas assessed, Hong Kong ranked first in trade freedom, investment freedom and financial freedom and was in the top 10 for business freedom, monetary freedom and property rights.
The pro-free market foundation said Hong Kong was one of the world’s leading financial centres and said its regulation of banking and financial services was transparent and efficient.
Responding to the survey, Hong Kong’s financial secretary John Tsang said: “We are determined to uphold Hong Kong as the freest economy in the world.
“We see the role of the government as that of a facilitator. We can provide a business-friendly environment where all firms can compete on a level playing field.”
A total of 179 global economies were judged on 10 criterion, including freedom from corruption and labour freedom, to decide the Heritage Foundation rankings.
Source: SAPA
Tags: freest economy, financial, TradeRelated Posts:
Stable pledge for the yuan
February 9, 2009
THE yuan will remain stable against the United States dollar in the near future with the Chinese government pledging to stabilize the currency.
The yuan closed slightly higher against the dollar last week at 6.8371 on Friday, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System. The local currency ended at 6.8380 by the end of the previous week.
“The yuan will not gain or fall on a large scale. The financial turmoil has brought much uncertainty to the market, and we will keep it at a reasonable and stable level,” said Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the central bank.
“China’s exports are heavily affected by falling demand from foreign countries, and a depreciation of the local currency will not be any good for domestic manufacturers,” said Lian Ping, chief economist with the Bank of Communications.
Liu Dongliang, an analyst with China Merchants Bank, said: “We have seen a fairly balanced trading of the yuan after the week-long Chinese New Year holiday.”
Tags: exports, Trade, financialRelated Posts:
Impact of global financial turmoil on China seen as limited
October 5, 2008
Oct. 4 — The ongoing global financial turbulence will have a limited impact on China’s banks and financial system in the short run, according to officials and experts.
“We feel China’s financial system and its banks are, to the chaos developed in the U.S. and other parts of the world, relatively shielded from those problems,” said senior economist Louis Kuijs at the World Bank Beijing Office.
He told Xinhua one reason was that Chinese banks were less involved in the highly sophisticated financial transactions and products.
“They were lucky not to be so-called developed, because this (financial crisis) is very much a developed market crisis.”
A few Chinese lenders were subject to losses from investing in foreign assets involved in the Wall Street crisis, but the scope and scale were small and the banks had been prepared for possible risks, Liu Fushou, deputy director of the Banking Supervision Department I of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, told China Central Television (CCTV).
Chinese banks had only invested 3.7 percent of their total wealth in overseas assets that were prone to international tumult, CCTV reported. The ratio of provisions to possible losses had exceeded 110 percent at large, state owned listed lenders, 120 percent at joint stock commercial banks and 200 percent at foreign banks.
Kuijs noted most of the banks resided in China where capital control made it more difficult to move money in and out. Besides, the country’s large foreign reserves prevented the financial system from a lack of liquidity, which was troubling the strained international markets.
“At times like this, one cannot rule out anything,” he said. “But still we believe the economic development and economic fundamentals in China are such that it’s not easy to foresee a significant direct impact on the financial system.”
However, he expected an impact on China’s banks coming via the country’s real economy, as exports, investment and plans of companies would be affected by the troubled world economy and in turn increase pressure on bad loans.
Wang Xiaoguang, a Beijing-based macro-economist, said the growing risks on global markets would render a negative effect on China in the short term but provided an opportunity for the country to fuel its growth more on domestic demand than on external needs.
He urged while China, the world’s fastest expanding economy, should be more cautious of fully opening up its capital account, the government should continue its market reforms on the domestic financial industry without being intimidated.
Chinese banks had strengthened the management of their investments in overseas liquid assets and taken a more prudent strategy in foreign currency-denominated investment products since the U.S.-born financial crisis broke out, CCTV reported.
Written by Mu Xuequan in Xinhua
Tags: China, financialRelated Posts:
