介绍:
China April Manufacturing Activity Drops to 1-year Low: HSBC
A reading by HSBC shows China's manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) for April fell to a one- year low of 49.2.
Readings above 50 indicate expansion.
The April reading records a decline from the 50.1 in March.
Annabel Fiddes, an economist at Markit, says the weak PMI data signals that operating conditions in China's manufacturing sector deteriorated slightly for the second month running in April.
She also says production increased only marginally, while total new business declined for the second successive month.
She estimates that demand from overseas improved in April, with new export work rising for the first time in three months.
The official PMI data for April will be released early next month.
China to Open Bank Card Clearing Market to Foreign Firms from June
Anchor:
The Chinese government has announced plans to allow foreign players into the bank card sector.
The State Council has announced that it will open up the market for clearing domestic bank card transactions as of June 1st.
Foreign firms will be able to set up their own clearing companies in China and apply to the central bank for licenses for bank card clearing operations.
Currently, only China UnionPay can provide clearing services for bank card transactions in the country.
Transactions through bank and credit cards last year in China hit some 6.8-trillion U.S. dollars.
The move is part of a promise made in 2012 after the United States filed a complaint to the World Trade Organization, accusing China of discriminating against foreign bank card and credit card firms.
For more on the move, the Beijing Hour's Paul James earlier spoke with CRI's financial commentator, Cao Can.
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Back anchor:
That was CRI's financial commentator Cao Can speaking with the Beijing Hour's Paul James.
China SOE Profits Continue to Drop in Q1
Official data shows profits at China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) continued to drop in the first quarter of the year.
SOEs' combined profits fell 8 percent year on year to just below five hundred billion yuan or about 81 billion U.S. dollars.
Total business revenues shrank 6 percent year on year to over 10 trillion yuan.
Operating costs retreated 5.1 percent to 10 trillion yuan.
The drop compares to 3.3-percent growth during the same period last year.
Electronics, property, electricity and chemical sectors have reported strong profits in the first quarter.
oil, construction materials and machinery have seen notable drops in profits.
Steel, non-ferrous metals, coal and petrochemical sectors have reported losses.
The figures, which exclude financial firms, have been collected from SOEs in 36 provincial-level regions and those administered by the central government.
China Imposes Anti-trust Fine on Mercedes-Benz
Authorities in China's Jiangsu Province have imposed a 350 million yuan or 56 million U.S. dollars fine on German car maker Mercedes-Benz for violating anti-monopoly laws and price fixing.
Meanwhile three Mercedes-Benz dealers have been separately fined nearly 8 million yuan.
Investigators have found that the automaker either colluded with its dealers to control prices or directly notified them about quoted prices in order to achieve market dominance between January 2013 and July 2014.
The National Development and Reform Commission ruled the company has violated the Chinese Anti-Monopoly Law by excluding or restraining market competition and thus damaging the rights and interests of consumers.
In response, Mercedes-Benz says the company respects the anti-trust order and will take the punishment.
It has also implemented "an in-company rectification plan", which has been approved by investigation authorities, to make sure each of its sales procedures follow Chinese laws and regulations.
China's regulators last year fined Chrysler, Audi and 12 Japanese companies after anti-trust investigations.
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