Economy/Resources - 147. page

Xinhua recently reported on the financial performance of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. Based on the first three quarters of 2014, even though its net profit is growing, the amount of outstanding bad debts has reached 766.9 billion yuan (US$125 billion), an increase of 72.5 billion yuan (US$11.83 billion) since the end of the second quarter. Its bad loan ratio is 1.16 percent, up by 0.09 percent from the second quarter. The report also stated that the bank’s overall risk compensation ability is stronger as its loan loss provision grew 69.8 billion yuan (US$11.39 billion); its provision coverage ratio, an indicator of how protected a bank is against future losses, is at 247.15 percent, down 15.74 percent from the second quarter, while its loan provision ratio, the ratio of loan loss provision to outstanding loans, is at 2.88 percent up 0.04 percent from the second quarter.

Source: Xinhua, November 17, 2014
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2014-11/17/c_127217568.htm

On November 13, 2014, the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau stated that the measures taken during the APEC period to reduce air pollution brought blue skies to Beijing (APEC blue). According to its press release, during this period, PM2.5 particles were reduced by over 30 percent on a daily basis in Beijing and its neighboring regions. Since there were fewer cars on the road, the automobile speed in Beijing went up from 22 km per hour to 50 km per hour. 

On November 13, 2014, China’s Ministry of Education released its 2013 report on engineering education, the first of its kind. The report was based on visits to six trade associations and societies, interviews of close to 30 experts, surveys of over 260 employers, and surveys conducted on over 40,000 students. 

On November 7, 2014, Caixin published an article on bad loans in the first half of 2014. The article stated that 90 percent of the bad bank loans in Sichuan Province were residential loans.  

Guangming Daily reported that the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) has been conducting random inspections of online products this year. The AQSIQ recently published a report on its findings that close to 30 percent of the online products failed the inspection. Of the products inspected, shoes had the highest failure rate followed by toys made with flannel material. The report also named a certain brand of cashmere products that contain only Angora hair. Other materials include down jackets that contains fake down. The Administration claimed it will conduct an inspection again in November and will take necessary actions to deal with the manufacturers who make defective products.

Source: Guangming Daily, November 6, 2014
http://tech.gmw.cn/2014-11/06/content_13773599.htm

Xinhua published an article on the current manufacturing model in China. The article said that manufacturers do not invest sufficiently in research and development and do not have the urge to transition from a traditional manufacturing company into one that conducts its own technological innovations. Because Chinese manufacturers don’t own the core technology and can only make a small profit, they have lost their competitive advantage in the international market. The article also pointed out that the contribution from China’s scientific research remains low. The rate at which a research concept is actually converted into the final product is at less than 5 percent. At the same time, China is losing most of its elite talent to foreign countries. According to the article, the statistics available during a recent international optoelectronics expo held in Wuhan City suggested that 77 percent of the world’s cell phones are made in China each year. However, China only owns less than 3 percent of the chip technology. Therefore it has to spend over US$200 billion a year on cell phone chip imports.

Source: Xinhua, November 10, 2014
http://news.xinhuanet.com/info/2014-11/10/c_133778091.htm

On November 6, the Ministry of Civil Affairs released information explaining that, in the month of October, the occurrence of a number of calamities resulted in direct economic losses of more than 8.1 billion yuan (US$1.33 billion). The disasters in October consisted primarily of earthquakes, flooding in the south, and snow in the northeast. The disasters impacted over 3.25 million people in 21 provinces and resulted in direct economic losses of 8.1 billion yuan. During the disasters, over 8,000 houses and buildings collapsed and an additional 179,000 houses and buildings suffered different degrees of damage. A total of 3,527,000 hectares of crops were damaged, while 421,000 hectares of crops were totally destroyed. 

Economic Information Daily reported that the anticipated growth of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in October will reach a new low of 1.4 percent. It is likely that the 1.6 percent growth earlier, which was the new low for the last 56 months, had not bottomed out. Estimates for the CPI growth for October came in at 1.4 percent. Analysts believe that the consecutive decline in the CPI monthly growth is indicative of the deepening pressure from the deflation in the world economy. The sharp slowdown in the CPI and PPI growth requires further relaxation of China’s monetary policy.