China is considering allowing the usage of yuan-backed stablecoins for the first time to boost wider adoption of its currency globally in a major reversal of its stance towards digital assets, Reuters reported. The State Council - China's cabinet – will review and possibly approve a roadmap later this month for the greater usage of the currency globally, including catching up with a U.S. push on stablecoins.
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China is expected to keep benchmark lending rates unchanged for the third straight month in August this week, a Reuters survey showed, despite a string of recent economic data suggesting the economy might lose some momentum. Rather than resorting to broad-based monetary easing, the central bank may instead place greater emphasis on structural policies aimed at specific sectors to support the economy, market watchers said. Meanwhile, Beijing's ongoing "anti-involution" campaign to get rid of industrial overcapacity could also help combat persistent deflationary pressure.
Embattled Chinese property developer Country Garden said on Monday it had reached an agreement with a core group of bank creditors that holds 49% of its offshore debt, marking another step in its $14.1 billion restructuring plan, Reuters reported. Once China's largest developer, the company defaulted on $11 billion in offshore bonds in late 2023, adding to a sector-wide crisis that had already seen high-profile failures, including of China Evergrande Group.
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The Chinese economy slowed noticeably in July, according to official statistics released on Friday, highlighting a complex set of challenges facing China amid growing global tensions over trade, the New York Times reported. The government attributed the slowdown partly to the trade war with the United States, though China’s economy is still suffering the overhang of a four-year-long crash in real estate values. What’s more, officials recently have taken deliberate steps to slow its factories as many countries have begun imposing tariffs on China’s massive and still rising exports.
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China's new home prices fell again in July, dropping 0.3% on month, but declines eased slightly in major cities as more local governments rolled out incentives for homebuyers, though further support is still needed, Reuters reported. The month-on-month decline was calculated by Reuters, based on data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Friday. In June, prices fell 0.3%. China's property market has been stuck in a severe slump for more than four years, with declining prices, sales, new investment and construction starts weighing on economic growth.
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President Trump recently delayed for 90 days raising tariffs on China to give the two sides more time to negotiate a trade deal. Where the sides ultimately end up is an open question: The president hasn’t said how much more he will impose on China beyond the 30% currently in place if a deal isn’t reached, the Wall Street Journal reported. But this much is clear: The U.S.’s reliance on Chinese goods has fallen off since Trump first put tariffs on China in 2018. China now accounts for only about 12% of all U.S.
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China’s new yuan loans dropped unexpectedly in July, sending yet another sign of weak demand in the economy despite Beijing’s efforts to bolster domestic demand, the Wall Street Journal reported. A measure of new yuan loans shrank by 50 billion yuan last month, according to official data released Wednesday by the People’s Bank of China, suggesting that borrowers rushed to repay funds. It marked the first such decline in about 20 years.
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The severely indebted real estate developer China Evergrande, already in the process of liquidation, said on Tuesday it will be delisted from Hong Kong’s stock exchange on Aug. 25, another setback to mainland China’s property sector, the Associated Press reported. Evergrande was the world’s most heavily indebted real estate developer, with over $300 billion owed to banks and bondholders, when the court handed down a liquidation order in January 2024.
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Mike Chai aims to cut wage costs at his kitchen cabinet factory by about 30% to remain competitive against other Chinese firms, which have stopped selling to the U.S. due to steep tariffs and are now coming after his long-time customers in Australia, Reuters reported. Chai had already halved his workforce to 100 people since the pandemic and says he has no more room to trim. Instead, he is shortening shifts and asking workers to take unpaid leave - an increasingly common practice that has become a hidden deflationary force in the world's second-largest economy.
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