Tag: Economy

China, Ecuador Set to Sign Free Trade Agreement 

Chin@Strategy

Quito —  China and Ecuador will sign a free trade agreement after almost a year of negotiations, Ecuador’s president said Tuesday, with the deal expected to boost growth in the South American country. “Good news to start 2023. The FTA negotiation between China and Ecuador has been successfully concluded,” President Guillermo Lasso said on Twitter. “Our exports will have preferential access to the largest market in the world, our industries will be able to acquire machinery and inputs at lower costs.” China is one of Ecuador’s main trading partners, with…

Chinese-Funded Projects Deepen Sri Lanka’s Economic Woes

Chin@Strategy

NEW DELHI —  During the past decade, China funded the construction of massive infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka meant to boost the island nation’s economy. However, after the economic collapse of the tiny Indian Ocean country earlier this year, there were questions whether these projects had contributed to the worst crisis it has ever faced. A port city that dominates Colombo’s seafront was built on a 269-hectare patch of land reclaimed from the sea. It was to become a thriving business and financial hub, but it is virtually deserted. An…

Global Holiday Travel Soars  

Chin@Strategy

washington —  Across the globe, people are on the move as a hectic Christmas and New Year’s holiday travel season is in full swing. December and January are among the busiest months for global aviation, with passenger traffic this year expected to be the highest since travel restrictions were imposed because of the pandemic. “This is the first time visiting my relatives for the holidays in three years,” Lyla Singh of Aldie, Virginia, told VOA. She arrived at Dulles International Airport outside Washington nearly four hours before her flight to…

Will African Nations Get Debt Help from IMF and China?

Chin@Strategy

Johannesburg, South Africa  —  Long-running tensions between the major international lenders and China were aired at a meeting in China’s Anhui province, where participants sought agreement on a way forward for some of the world’s most indebted countries, many of them in Africa. Representatives of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and Beijing’s finance ministry participated in the meeting to discuss debt restructuring for low-income countries — 60% of which the IMF says are at or near debt distress. The relationship between the IMF and China — the world’s largest…

COVID Restrictions Lifted, China’s Businesspeople Hit the Road to Revive Export Economy

Chin@Strategy

Hong Kong —  Yiwu, a city in China’s Zhejiang province, produces more than half the world’s Christmas ornaments purchased by the billions of people who celebrate the holiday. China’s “zero-COVID” policy, coupled with global pandemic fears, dulled the local export-fueled year-round glitterfest. Christmas orders fell by 50% in 2020, according to the official Global Times with raw material costs and labor shortages hindering a recovery in 2021, which saw only a 10% to 20% increase in sales over the previous year. Then, faster than elves could hitch those nine reindeer…

China Frees Up $70 Billion for Banks to Underpin Slowing Economy

Chin@Strategy

China said on Friday it would cut the amount of cash that banks must hold as reserves for the second time this year, releasing about $69.8 billion in long-term liquidity to prop up a faltering economy hit by record COVID-19 cases. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said it would cut the reserve requirement ratio for banks by 25 basis points (bps), effective from Dec. 5. The central bank hopes to spur more lending into the economy, but analysts are skeptical it could achieve quick results, as new COVID outbreaks…

Younger Workers Spurn Factory Jobs that Power China’s Economy

Chin@Strategy

Growing up in a Chinese village, Julian Zhu saw his father only a few times a year when he returned for holidays from his exhausting job in a textile mill in southern Guangdong province. For his father’s generation, factory work was a lifeline out of rural poverty. For Zhu, and millions of other younger Chinese, the low pay, long hours of drudgery and the risk of injuries are no longer sacrifices worth making. “After a while, that work makes your mind numb,” said the 32-year-old, who quit the production lines…