Zhu Rongji, who has died aged 97, was the fifth premier of the People’s Republic of China and one of its most effective administrators and economic reformers following its foundation in 1949. In 1991, Zhu was summoned to Beijing, in the footsteps of the then president and party secretary Jiang Zemin, and in the aftermath of the 1989 uprisings in Beijing and the collapse of the Soviet Union. As vice premier in the state council, and governor of the People’s Bank of China (1993-95), Zhu was put in charge of…
Tag: Economics
China’s economy grows at 4.3%, one of its lowest rates on record
China has posted worse-than-expected growth figures for the three months to June as its economy expanded by just 4.3% – one of its lowest quarterly readings on record. The rate, which came in under the government’s target of 4.5% to 5%, was one of the weakest since reporting on official quarterly GDP figures began in the early 1990s. The last period when growth was lower was the final quarter of 2022 when the country was still under its three-year period of Covid-19 restrictions. The data released on Wednesday by the…
China’s monthly car exports top 1m for first time as overall trade soars
China’s monthly car exports topped 1m for the first time in June as overall overseas shipments from the world’s second biggest economy rose 27%. Official Chinese customs data showed that a stronger-than-expected trade performance kept China on track to match or beat last year’s record trade surplus of $1tn (£748bn), achieved despite Donald Trump’s curtailed tariff war. Sales of Chinese brands ranging from BYD to Jaecoo are booming, eating into the market shares of long-established brands, particularly in Europe. Analysis by the Mercator Institute for China Studies (Merics) in Berlin…
EU sets up three months of talks with China over €360bn trade deficit
The EU and China have agreed to enter three months of talks to try to avoid a trade war over the bloc’s €360bn (£310bn) annual import/export imbalance. In their first joint statement in seven years, the two sides agreed in Brussels to open a formal trade consultation after weeks of threats and recriminations from China if the EU imposed any measures to stop the flood of goods and components into the bloc. The EU’s trade commissioner, Maroš Šefčovič, said he hoped the “dialogue would bring tangible results” before the next…
UK to halve tariff-free steel imports to counter glut of cheap Chinese metal
The UK government will halve the amount of tariff-free steel imports allowed in an attempt to counter a global oversupply of cheap Chinese metal and bolster its beleaguered local industry. New “safeguards” will be introduced on 1 July and will coincide with similar new limits being introduced by the EU for the same purposes. At the same time tariffs on steel imports above the duty-free quotas will be doubled to 50% of the product’s value. The quotas replace existing pre-Brexit rules that set import levels across the EU. The UK…
Petrol prices in Australia are now lower than before the Iran war began. Is the oil crisis over and what happens next?
Australians were warned soon after the Middle East conflict started that the country could run short on fuel, with prices rising to record levels owing to disrupted oil supplies. Now, amid an uneasy peace deal and continued supply disruptions, petrol prices are lower than they were before the conflict began and official warnings over fuel usage have largely disappeared. Why haven’t we run out of fuel? Why were we told to cut back? And what will happen now? How did refiners keep getting oil? The US-Israel war on Iran closed…
EU trade deficit with China reaches record €1bn a day, data shows
The EU’s trade deficit with China has reached a record €1bn (£0.8bn) a day, according to official trade data, fuelling concerns over the future of Europe’s “industrial backbone”. The gap between the EU’s imports from China and exports to China amounted to €31.9bn in April, according to the latest import and export data from the EU statistics body Eurostat. The data comes as European leaders prepare to meet on Thursday to discuss measures to address the growing trade imbalance, which includes the increased presence of Chinese electric cars – exported…
On China, Trump picked the right battle but the wrong strategy
We are in for a long trade war. In the months since “Liberation Day” last year, when Donald Trump let loose a volley of tariffs against imports from everywhere, countries have rushed to build new relationships in the hope of maybe circumventing the US to protect the global trading system. The European Union hurried to sign a trade agreement with South America’s Mercosur bloc that had been sitting on ice for years. China and south-east Asian nations deepened their trade agreement. The Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, travelled to Beijing…
Germany urged to stop admiring Beijing and wake up to ‘China Shock 2.0’
Germany must stop admiring China’s success in the EU or it will sleepwalk into the kind of deindustrialisation the US experienced 25 years ago, a leading Brussels thinktank has said. With China’s surplus with Germany having doubled between 2024 and 2025 from $12bn (£9bn) to $25bn, creating a $94bn trade imbalance, the Centre for European Reform (CER) said Europe’s largest economy risked a repeat of what happened in the US in 2001 when a sudden surge in imports permanently hollowed out towns in the American midwest. “China Shock 1.0” not…
Reliance on Chinese green tech poses ‘serious’ risk for Europe, experts say
Europe is “sleepwalking” into a series of economic and national security problems because of an over-reliance on Chinese green technology, according to experts. A report co-authored by Michael Collins, a former deputy head of national security strategy at the UK Cabinet Office, described the risks of depending on China for green tech as “serious”. “Europe risks sleepwalking into a series of economic and geopolitical national security problems because of over-reliance on Chinese low-carbon technology,” he said. The report said Europe was heavily dependent on Chinese green technology, with China supplying…