China is to take “golden shares” in two of its biggest tech companies, Alibaba and Tencent, as Beijing extends its influence on the country’s star tech firms and its most powerful and wealthy business people. Beijing’s move marks a shift away from imposing hefty fines and sanctions in its two-year tech crackdown, which was launched after Alibaba founder, Jack Ma, criticised regulators, The crackdown has proved tumultuous for Chinese tech firms, with billions wiped off their value, and moves including blocking the flotation of Ma’s financial services firm, Ant Group,…
Tag: Chinese economy
Global economic forecast for 2023? A stormy start followed by a ray of hope
Investors should brace for another turbulent year in the financial markets, economists have warned as central banks fight inflation, China reopens its economy after Covid-19 restrictions and the Ukraine war pushes the global economy towards recession. The first half of the new year is likely to be choppy, according to Wall Street predictions, after global markets suffered their biggest fall since the 2008 financial crisis last year. But the US S&P 500 is still expected to end 2023 a little higher than it began the year. The average target of…
China’s move to ease Covid travel restrictions lifts hopes for global economy
China’s decision to ease rules on travel in and out of the country, the world’s second-largest economy, has offered investors hope that it could soften the toll from higher interest rates on global stock markets and unblock supply chains amid a dark outlook for 2023. Chinese authorities said late on Monday that inbound travellers would not have to quarantine on arrival, from 8 January onward. The announcement marked the latest in a series of steps to reopen the country, which is home to vital global supply chains and 1.4 billion…
Covid’s still a big issue for China – and that’s trouble for global economy
For much of the world there has been hope for some time that the worst economic shocks from the Covid pandemic are in the rearview mirror. In China, however, there are important reminders that risks to the world economy still remain. Three years since the virus first spread, protests in several Chinese cities against the Beijing government’s strict zero-Covid policies have reignited concerns in financial markets over the economic costs of the pandemic. Global oil prices have fallen back, while the Chinese yuan and stock markets across Asia have taken…
Oil, yuan and stocks slide as China protests send ‘waves of unease across financial markets’ – business live
From 2h ago Introduction: Oil and stocks hit by China protests A currency trader at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea. Photograph: Ahn Young-joon/AP Good morning and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy. Global stock markets are on edge as the protests intensify at major Chinese cities against the country’s stringent zero-Covid rules. Stocks have fallen across Asia-Pacific markets, while oil has dropped to a near 11-month low, as public demonstrations in cities…
China braces for wave of workers fleeing iPhone factory in Covid-hit Zhengzhou
Cities in central China have hastily drawn up plans to isolate migrant workers fleeing to their home towns from the country’s largest iPhone factory, amid fears they will spread coronavirus after leaving the plant in Covid-hit Zhengzhou. Videos shared on Chinese social media showed people who are allegedly workers at the Foxconn plant climbing over fences and carrying their belongings along a road. It was previously reported that a number of workers had been placed under quarantine because of an outbreak of the disease. Foxconn, a supplier to Apple that…
China delays key economic data releases amid Communist party congress
China has said it will delay the release of economic growth figures, which had been due to be published as the country’s leadership gathers for a key meeting set to hand president Xi Jinping a historic third term in office. The announcement came one day before analysts had expected Beijing to publish some of its weakest quarterly growth figures since 2020 with the economy hobbled by Covid-19 restrictions and a real estate crisis. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Monday the release of growth figures for the third…
Think Putin is a global threat? Then we need to talk about Xi Jinping | Simon Tisdall
Like fearsome dictators throughout history, Xi Jinping has a tender side. He loves his mum. In a touching puff piece on Mother’s Day this year, state TV showed China’s strongman president strolling hand in hand with 96-year-old Qi Xin, a Communist party veteran and proud mother of the paramount leader. Many mums read fairy stories or sing nursery rhymes to their young children. Not so Qi. She taught five-year-old Xi about Yue Fei, a famously hawkish Southern Song dynasty general who had “Serve the country with utmost loyalty” tattooed on…
China growth lags Asia-Pacific for first time in decades as World Bank cuts outlook
Covid-zero policies and the housing market crisis have put China’s economic growth behind the rest of the Asia-Pacific region for the first time in more than 30 years, according to World Bank forecasts. In a biannual report released on Tuesday, the US-based institution said the annual growth outlook for East Asia and the Pacific region had been downgraded from 5% to 3.2%. However much of that decline was down to economic woes in China, which constitutes 86% of the region’s economic output. The World Bank forecast GDP growth in China…
A Ponzi scheme by any other name: the bursting of China property bubble
A little more than a year ago, a Chinese property developer largely unknown to the outside world said its cashflow was under “tremendous pressure” and it might not be able to pay back some of its eye-watering debts of $300bn (£275bn). Today, that company, China Evergrande Group, is all too well known as the poster child of the country’s economic woes. House prices in China have fallen in each of the 12 months since Evergrande’s now prophetic warning, with Xi Jinping’s government now preparing to throw billions of dollars at…