U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs on Chinese imports are biting into the income of some American retail-focused companies, with at least two already in bankruptcy court and others forecasting significant losses, the South China Morning Post reported. Exporters were shouldering a relatively small share of duties on goods sent from China to the US, leaving American firms to absorb the remaining costs or pass them on to consumers, according to minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee's meeting on July 29-30, citing the views of its participants.
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The Panama Canal Authority plans to sell rights to two, yet-to-be-built ports to bring in more operators and limit the influence of any one group, specifically Geneva-based Mediterranean Shipping Co. and China’s state-run Cosco, the Wall Street Journal reported. The head of the authority, Ricaurte Vásquez Morales, said he wants to bring in more competition now that MSC and China’s largest shipping company have emerged as significant players in a clash between the U.S. and China over who controls two existing Panama Canal ports. In March, U.S.
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China Evergrande, a real estate developer that once represented the pinnacle of China’s economic prowess, was formally removed from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Monday, the New York Times reported. Evergrande, which made its financial debut in Hong Kong 16 years ago, had once been the fastest growing property developer in a country brimming with promise of profits for investors. It will be remembered as one of the world’s most indebted companies whose collapse brought China’s financial system to the brink.
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Evergrande’s collapse, with $300 billion in debt, mirrors the slow and painful unwinding of China’s property sector, the New York Times reported. Government policies staved off a sudden crash, and instead delivered a grinding slowdown. The housing downturn has not delivered the devastating shock that the United States suffered in the 2008 financial crisis, but it has been hanging over the economy for five years with no end in sight.
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Embattled Chinese property developer Country Garden on Friday warned of a bigger loss for the first half of fiscal 2025, after deliveries of housing projects halved from 2024 and asset impairments rose, Reuters reported. The company delivered about 74,000 housing units in the first half, compared with over 150,000 in the same period last year. The primary concern remains resolving issues around debt, Country Garden said.
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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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