China’s industrial profits fell the most in two years last month, the latest data to show a deepening slowdown in the world’s second-biggest economy as pressure grows on the nation’s central bank to ease monetary conditions.
Total profits of China’s industrial enterprises last month dropped 4.2 percent from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday in Beijing. That followed October’s 2.1 percent decline and a 0.4 percent increase in September. It is the biggest slide since August 2012, when profits slumped 6.2 percent.
Mired in industrial overcapacity, factory-gate deflation and a housing slump, China is headed for its slowest full-year economic expansion since 1990. A Chinese factory index fell to a seven-month low this month, while growth in aggregate financing, the broadest gauge of credit, trailed last month’s estimates and imports unexpectedly dropped amid weak demand.
China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rallied 2.8 percent on Friday — extending a two-day gain to 6.2 percent, the strongest in five years — amid speculation the government will further ease monetary policy to support the economy after cutting interest rates last month.
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) may start including in calculations of loan-to-deposit ratios any cash banks hold for non-deposit-taking financial institutions, Reuters reported on Friday, citing unidentified people.
The report comes after people with knowledge of the matter said earlier this week that lenders would not be required to set aside reserves for such holdings.
The measures are seen as another move to replace a universal reserve-requirement ratio cut that the PBOC needs to boost credit and bolster the economy. Concerned that a broad reduction might send out a strong easing signal and bring turmoil to stock markets, the central bank has added liquidity by stealth at least four times in the past four months.
For the first 11 months of the year, profits at industrial companies rose 5.3 percent from year-earlier levels, the NBS data showed.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
RSS