A threat by Donald Trump, who has been elected as the next U.S. president, to impose 60% tariffs on U.S. imports of Chinese goods poses major growth risks for the world's second-largest economy, Reuters reported. Not only are the tariff rates much higher than the 7.5%-25% levied on China during his first term, the economy is also in a much more vulnerable position. In 2018, the property market was strong, driving about a quarter of China's economic activity. That meant local government finances, heavily reliant on auctioning land for residential projects, were not questioned so forcefully.
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China has moved forward with a complaint at the World Trade Organization that alleges the European Union has improperly set anti-subsidy tariffs on new Chinese-made electric vehicles, the Associated Press reported. The Chinese diplomatic mission to the WTO said Monday it “strongly opposes” the measures and insisted its move was designed to protect the EV industry and support a global transition toward greener technologies.
Prices of new homes in China rose at a faster pace in October, traditionally a peak season for house hunting, a private survey showed on Friday, suggesting that recent support measures could be having some early impact in a crisis-hit market, Reuters reported. The average price across 100 cities edged up 0.29%, compared with the previous month's 0.14%, according to data released by property researcher China Index Academy. On a year-on-year basis, the average price rose 2.08% versus 1.85% growth in September.
A private gauge of China’s manufacturing activity signaled that the sector returned to growth in October, in a potential sign that Beijing’s more aggressive efforts to boost the economy are having an effect, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Caixin manufacturing purchasing managers index rose to 50.3 in October from 49.3 in September, according to data released by Caixin Media Co. and S&P Global on Friday. A reading below 50 suggests that activity is shrinking and one above indicates that it is expanding.
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China's push to shift its food import sources since 2018 has put it in a better position to impose tit-for-tat tariffs on U.S. farm goods with less harm to its food security if trade friction with Washington flares after the U.S. presidential election, Reuters reported. The threat of a trade war looms for China, the world's top importer of farm products such as soybeans and corn, with Republican candidate Donald Trump floating blanket 60% tariffs on Chinese goods in a bid to boost U.S. manufacturing. His opponent Kamala Harris, a Democrat, is also expected to confront China on trade.
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China’s residential property sales rose in October, the first on-year increase of 2024, as the government’s latest stimulus blitz brought back buyers, Bloomberg News reported. The value of new-home sales from the 100 biggest real estate companies rose 7.1% from a year earlier to 435.5 billion yuan ($61.2 billion), reversing from a 37.7% slump in September, according to preliminary data from China Real Estate Information Corp. Sales surged 73% from a month earlier.
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In January, the Catalan regional government in Spain created a specialized desk dedicated to increasing investment and trade with China, the world’s second-largest economy. In July, the Port of Barcelona approved plans to build a terminal with direct access to the port’s railway for electric vehicles that China is exporting to Europe, the New York Times reported. Last month, during a visit to Beijing by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, the Chinese wind turbine giant Envision Energy agreed to team up with his government and invest $1 billion to build a green hydrogen industrial park.
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China is considering approving next week the issuance of over 10 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion) in extra debt in the next few years to revive its fragile economy, Reuters reported. China's top legislative body, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), is looking to approve the fresh fiscal package, including 6 trillion yuan which would partly be raised via special sovereign bonds, on the last day of a meeting to be held from Nov. 4-8.
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China's central bank launched a new lending tool on Monday to inject more liquidity into the market and support credit flow in the banking system ahead of the expiration of trillions of yuan in loans at the end of the year, Reuters reported. The People's Bank of China said in a statement it had activated the open market outright reverse repo operations facility to "maintain a reasonable abundance of liquidity in the banking system and further enrich the central bank's policy toolbox".
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As recently as 2010, few industries were as lawless, and yet as central to the global economy, as China’s production of rare earth metals, the New York Times reported. Consignments of rare earths frequently changed hands for sacks of Chinese currency: The rule of thumb was that a cubic foot of tightly packed 100-renminbi bills was worth $350,000. At a warehouse in Guangzhou, near Hong Kong, acid was used illegally to extract rare earths, and the residue, faintly radioactive, was dumped into the municipal sewage.
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