China’s economic growth decelerated further in 3Q18, as the impacts of restraining infrastructure investment and trade war surfaced. GDP growth moderated to +6.5% y/y in the third quarter, the slowest since the first quarter of 2009. Growth came in...
China announced to cut RRR by 100 bps, effective October 15 and applicable to all types of banks, including large commercial banks, joint-stock banks, city commercial banks, non-county rural commercial banks, and foreign banks whose current RRR stand at...
China’s headline CPI rose to a 6-month high of +2.3% y/y in August, up from +2.1% a month ago. However, the increase almost entirely came from food prices which jumped to +1.7%, from +0.5% in the prior month. Taking...
China is on pins and needles as it sees renminbi (Chinese yuan) fall. The government dares not risk massive capital flight for uncertain benefit in exports by depreciating its currency. The apparent increases in FX reserve over the past...
July’s data showed that China’s economic growth continued to decelerate although the government has loosened its policy. All key economic activity indicators missed expectations for the month.
Industrial production grew +6% y/y, after a sharp slowdown in June and missing...
PBOC announced last Friday to impose 20% reserve requirement ratio (RRR) on onshore (CNY) FX forward transactions. Despite the central bank’s denial, the move is obviously to moderate recent sharp depreciation of renminbi. Such measure was implemented on October...
Renminbi’s depreciation since April this year has accelerated over the past two months. While USDCNY has in aggregate rallied over +6% in June and July, renminbi’s weakness was less pronounced against a basket of currencies. The CEFTS index, the...
Inflation
Headline CPI in China climbed +0.1 percentage point to +1.9% y/y in June, in line with expectations. On monthly basis, inflation contracted -0.1%, compared with consensus of a +0.1% increase. Yet, this is the smallest contraction since March this...
Weakness in renminbi has accelerated recently, driven by Donald Trump’s new list of tariff against China announced in mid-June, PBOC’s RRR cut and the jump in risk aversion over the Chinese market. USDCNY’s rally of more than +4% over...
Yesterday, PBOC announced a -50 bps reduction in reserve requirement ratio (RRR) for commercial banks. The move, effective from July 5, aims at easing the tightening in credit condition with the injection of about RMB 700B of liquidity to...
We expect the slowdown in China’s economic growth would be increasingly evident in coming months, reflecting the rapid moderation in credit growth in the first half of the year. PBOC left its policy rate unchanged, although FOMC lifted the...
China’s official PMI report (focusing on big companies) signals improvement in both manufacturing and services sector. The Caixin/ Markit data (focusing on SMEs) suggest both sectors remained resilient in May. We believe the government’s policy shift, to prioritize over...
China’s macroeconomic data was mixed in April. Industrial production (IP) expanded +7% y/y, accelerating form +6% in March and consensus of +6.4%. Retail sales grew +9.4% y/y, easing from +10.1% in March. The market had anticipated a milder drop...
China’s National Bureau of Statistics reported that manufacturing PMI eased to 51.4 in April, from 51.5 a month ago. This, however, came in better than consensus of 51.3. The non-manufacturing improved to 54.8 in April from 54.6 in the...
People’s Bank of China (PBOC) announced to cut 100 bps in the reserve requirement ratio (RRR), effective from April 25, for large commercial banks, joint-stock banks, city commercial banks, rural commercial banks, and foreign banks. While it would be...
China’s macroeconomic data showed a mixed picture in March.
Growth in industrial production (IP) eased to +6% y/y, compared with consensus of +6.9% and January- February’s +7.2%. The inflation report released last week also showed that headline CPI slowed markedly...
Speaking at the Boao Forum, sometimes known as "Asian Davos", Chinese President Xi Jinping announced four major areas of reform in opening up the market. First, the government would “significantly” ease market access, lowering restrictions for foreign investment in...
Over the past months, US trade policy has been a major cause of the wax and wane of the financial markets. The White House has triggered a number of investigations under the rarely used 1972 US trade law since...
China's economic data beat expectations in February. Headline CPI improved to +29% y/y, beating expectations of +2.5%, from January's +1.5%. On the economic activity barometers, industrial production grew +7.2% y/y in February, exceeding expectations of +6.3% and January's +6.2%....
China's official PMIs surprised to the downside in February. Manufacturing PMI dropped -1 point to 50.3 in February, while non-manufacturing PMI slipped -0.9 point to 54.4. The readings came in weaker than expectations of 52.1 and 55 respectively....