Chinese authorities have banned domestic banks from luring customers with gifts including the hugely popular Labubu dolls, amid fierce competition among lenders as interest rates and profit margins decline. The Zhejiang branch of China’s financial regulator, the National Financial Regulatory Administration, has asked local banks to refrain from offering non-compliant perks to attract deposits, Bloomberg News reported. The new guidance came after Ping An Bank ran a promotion, offering Pop Mart’s Labubu dolls in several cities to new customers who deposit at least 50,000 yuan (£5,162) for three months. The…
Tag: Chinese economy
China accuses US of ‘seriously violating’ trade truce
China has accused the US of “seriously violating” the fragile US-China detente that has been in place for less than a month since the two countries agreed to pause the trade war that risked upending the global economy. China and the US agreed on 12 May to pause for 90 days the skyrocketing “reciprocal” tariffs that both countries had placed on the others goods in a frenzied trade war that started a few weeks earlier. Tariffs had reached 125% on each side, which officials feared amounted to virtual embargo on…
Sing when you’re winning: how karaoke in cars heralds the triumph of Chinese firms
If Chinese carmakers are to be believed, a lot of people really love karaoke. Those people love karaoke so much that they want it in their family car. This was not something the European mind could comprehend a few years ago, according to Volkswagen’s chief financial officer, Arno Antlitz. Yet the technology, included in electric cars sold by China’s BYD and Xpeng, is just one example of the lessons that Volkswagen and its European counterparts have had to learn as they scramble to keep up with Chinese rivals on track…
Trump tariffs could lead to surge of cheap Chinese vapes in UK, experts say
China is set to flood Britain with cheap vapes, researchers have said, as manufacturers seek to capitalise on the world’s second biggest market after Donald Trump’s tariffs. A trade standoff between Washington and Beijing has thrown the business world into chaos, with investors watching as each country dares the other to blink first. After last week’s uneasy truce, the total US import tax on Chinese-made vapes stood at about 60%. That has sent China’s $11.1bn (£8.4bn) e-cigarette export industry, already scarred by stringent domestic restrictions in 2022, back to the…
China and US agree 90-day pause to trade war initiated by Donald Trump
China and the US have agreed a 90-day pause to the deepening trade war that has threatened to upend the global economy, with reciprocal tariffs to be lowered by 115 percentage points. Speaking to the media after talks in Geneva, the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said both sides had shown “great respect” in the negotiations. Bessent said: “The consensus from both delegations this weekend was neither side wants a decoupling.” The 90-day lowering of tariffs applies to the duties announced by Donald Trump on 2 April, which ultimately escalated…
China exports beat expectations despite slump in trade with US
Chinese trade with the United States slumped in April even as its total exports beat forecasts, official figures show, as trade representatives from both nations prepared to meet this weekend in the midst of a gruelling trade war between the superpower rivals. Exports to the United States – one of China’s top trading partners – fell 17.6% in April, data showed. Against that backdrop, analysts polled by Bloomberg had expected exports to rise just 2% year-on-year last month. However they beat expectations, coming in at 8.1%. “The damage of the…
China to cut interest rates in response to trade war with US
China will cut interest rates and inject some much-needed liquidity into the domestic economy, as the country steels itself for a bruising trade war with the US. The People’s Bank of China said on Wednesday it would make a half-point cut to the banks’ reserve requirement ratio, its benchmark interest rate, and release 1tn yuan (£103.6bn) into the banking system. Pan Gongsheng, the governor of the People’s Bank of China, said China would also cut a key interest rate by 0.1 percentage point. Pan said the “moderately loose” measures were…
UK should not fear trade with China – but needs to keep risks in check | Gerard Lyons
The US is urging countries to agree new trade deals. The perceived risk is a bipolar world, where countries have to choose between the US and China. What are the implications for the UK? In all likelihood this choice is avoidable. The global economy is so interconnected, fragmentation is more likely than a bipolar world. Supply chains are complex, and involve many countries. Even as nations look to onshore supply chains, achieving this will be a lengthy and expensive challenge. Likewise, with financial flows. Bank for International Settlements data shows…
Xi announces plan for Chinese economy to counter impact of US trade war
Xi Jinping has announced a plan to counter China’s continuing economic problems and the impact of the US trade war, as reports swirl that it could drop tariffs on some US products, including semiconductors. Friday’s meeting of the politburo was convened to discuss China’s economic situation, which since the pandemic has faced difficulties fuelled by a housing sector crisis, youth unemployment, and Donald Trump’s tariffs on all Chinese exports. A readout of the meeting published by the official state media outlet, Xinhua, said China’s economy had showed a “positive trend”…
Chinese students in US tell of ‘chilling’ interrogations and deportations
Stopped at the border, interrogated on national security grounds, laptops and mobile phones checked, held for several hours, plans for future research shattered. Many western scholars are nervous about travelling to China in the current political climate. But lately it is Chinese researchers working at US universities who are increasingly reporting interrogations – and in several cases deportations – at US airports, despite holding valid work or study visas for scientific research. Earlier this month the Chinese embassy in Washington said more than 70 students “with legal and valid materials”…