Tag: People’s Bank of China

China Hits Ant Group with $985 Million Fine

Media Library

Chinese authorities announced a fine of nearly $1 billion for financial technology firm Ant Group on Friday, nearly three years after regulators halted the company’s plan for a record-breaking public offering that ushered in a period of intense government scrutiny of technology firms. The fine announced by China’s top securities regulator is seen as a sign that the authorities are wrapping up investigations into technology firms, bringing to a close a period of tough regulation for the industry. Officials said earlier this year that they would start to relax oversight…

The U.S.-China Rivalry Is Complicating the World’s Debt Crisis

Media Library

Inside his capacious office, his tan curtains drawn against the tropical sun, the president of Suriname expressed sympathy with the striking teachers who were massing outside, taunting him while demanding higher wages. Three years of unmitigated catastrophe has destroyed spending power in this South American country — the result of global crises landing atop decades of profligate governance. Food and fuel prices have soared, worsened by Russia’s war on Ukraine. The national currency plunged, and the economy cratered just as the pandemic spread death and fear. “The heavy burden on…

China’s Central Bank Cuts Loan Prime Rates

Media Library

China’s central bank cut key interest rates on Tuesday for loans issued by the state-controlled banking system, in the clearest sign yet of mounting concern in the Chinese government and corporate sector that the country’s economy is stalling. The interest rate cut was small — a tenth of a percentage point for the country’s benchmark one-year and five-year interest rates for loans. But because almost all of the country’s corporate lending and mortgages are linked to the two rates, the reductions could have some effect on the overall pace of…

China’s Biggest Banks Cut Deposit Rates to Spur Consumer Spending

Media Library

Why It Matters A reduction in the deposit rates is one lever that policymakers can use to stimulate spending. The hope is that the lower rates will give consumers an incentive to spend or invest money instead of parking their savings in the bank. The move is an indication that consumer spending, a key driver of economic growth, remains sluggish. After China scrapped its Covid restrictions late last year and reopened the economy, there were expectations that pent-up demand would push consumers to start spending freely — but that has…

‘Zero Covid’ Behind It, China’s Economy Starts to Recover

Chin@Strategy

Economic growth began to recover in China during the first three months of the year, after the government abruptly lifted stringent “zero Covid” measures in early December. The Chinese economy grew 4.5 percent from January through March compared with the same months last year, the country’s National Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday. Strong retail sales, up 10.6 percent in March from a year earlier, led the way. The stakes for the rest of the world are high. China has been the single largest engine of global growth for most of…

To Rein in China’s Banks, Xi Uses Familiar Playbook

Chin@Strategy

To a man with a hammer, a renowned psychologist once posited, everything looks like a nail. For most of his decade in power, Xi Jinping, China’s leader, has usually arrived at the same conclusion for how best to deal with the country’s issues: get the Communist Party more involved. And now, as China is confronting an economy lacking the dynamism of the past and teetering from a real estate sector in crisis and local governments overrun with debt, Mr. Xi is again wielding his hammer. At the annual gathering of…

Xi Jinping Picks Team to Work Under Him for the Next Five Years

Chin@Strategy

China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, was confirmed to a norm-breaking third term as state president on Friday, further formalizing his position as China’s most dominant leader in decades. The announcement was no surprise: Mr. Xi oversaw the abolition of presidential term limits in 2018, and in October he secured a third term as head of the Chinese Communist Party, the position from which his real authority derives. Now, as the annual meeting of China’s rubber-stamp legislature concludes in the coming days, many of his loyalists are being elevated to the…

The Numbers in the News

Chin@Strategy

Numbers that count 2 Two major central banks — the Bank of Japan and the People’s Bank of China — were the only ones not to raise interest rates this year, as inflation threatened economic growth and sapped consumer purchasing power. Central banks have collectively increased rates by more than 70 percent in 2022, according to LPL Financial, with the same goal: raise borrowing costs to cool rising prices that have been hitting shoppers from London to Poughkeepsie. Many were following the Fed, which increased its prime lending rate to…

Your Tuesday Briefing: Political Turmoil in Pakistan

Chin@Strategy

Good morning. We’re covering political turmoil in Pakistan and schools reopening in the Philippines. Political tensions swell in Pakistan Imran Khan, Pakistan’s former prime minister, was charged under the country’s antiterrorism act on Sunday. He is trying to stage a political comeback after he was ousted from power in April following a no-confidence vote. The charges followed a rally in Islamabad, the capital, where Khan condemned the recent arrest of one of his top aides and vowed to file legal cases against police officers and a judge involved in the…

Did this 2015 blog post from Didi contain Chinese state secrets? – TLD by MW

Chin@Strategy

We know that Didi, China’s ride hailing giant that went on US IPO on 30 June, is now under pressure from the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC). We do not know exactly what type of information is considered risky by the CAC, but a blog post Didi did in July 2015 probably offered a glimpse of what it could be. The entire government  The post, jointly developed by Xinhua News Agency and Didi Research Institute, contained information about travel patterns of key government ministries and agencies in Beijing over two…