Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強) said the country is prepared for “shocks that exceed expectations” as the world braces for US President Donald Trump to announce more tariffs on its trading partners next month.
Countries should open up markets in the face of growing economic fragmentation, Li yesterday told a gathering of global business leaders and visiting US Senator Steve Daines at the start of the China Development Forum in Beijing.
“Instability and uncertainty are on the upswing,” Li said. “At this time, I think it is even more important for each of our countries to open up markets more, and for all of our businesses to share their resources more.”
Photo: AFP
Top executives including Apple Inc’s Tim Cook, Qualcomm Inc’s Cristiano Amon, Pfizer Inc’s Albert Bourla and Saudi Aramco’s Amin Nasser are attending the two-day conference. Bloomberg News earlier reported that plans were being made for corporate titans to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Friday.
Daines, a member of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Saturday met with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰), a rare public exchange between US and Chinese officials since Trump returned to the White House. The US senator also met Li yesterday.
The Chinese premier reiterated a central bank pledge that policymakers would cut interest rates and the reserve requirement ratio when “timely,” and vowed to offer more support when necessary to ensure the economy runs smoothly.
Li’s remarks come as China renews efforts to attract foreign businesses after inbound investment tumbled last year to its lowest in over three decades.
“We are beginning to see some re-engagement with international investors coming into China,” Standard Chartered PLC chief executive officer Bill Winters said on the sidelines of the forum. “The only thing slowing down a little bit is the consumer credit business in China, because we know the economy is a little sluggish, so that stream of activities has not been growing as fast.”
The China Development Forum started in 2000, serving as a platform for high-level dialogue between China and the world.
Most years, the keynote speech was delivered by a vice premier, and the premier would hold a closed-door meeting with executives. In a break with precedence, Li addressed the forum last year while Xi met with a number of US business chiefs after the event, as Beijing sought to counter the downbeat narrative on its economy.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
RSS