介绍:
China Manufacturing Business Activity Improves slightly in April
Official data shows Chinese manufacturing business activity continued improving in April, with an important index remaining in expansion territory.
The manufacturing purchasing managers' index or PMI, a key measure of factory activity, came in at 50.1 last month.
The reading is unchanged from March's figure, but up slightly from February's reading.
A reading above 50 indicates expansion, while a reading below 50 represents contraction.
Zhao Qinghe, a senior statistician with the National Bureau of Statistics, says the manufacturing sector still faces downward pressure.
"The manufacturing PMI has in recent months been fluctuating at the critical point, and in April stayed at 50.1 percent, the same as in the previous month. This indicates that China's manufacturing sector has been kept basically stable. But we must not lose sight of the existing downward pressure."
Experts say the downward pressure is reflected in weak demand both at home and abroad.
The new orders sub-index came in at 50.2 percent in April, unchanged from March's reading, but was lower than in previous years on a year-on-year basis.
The sub-index for new export orders fell to 48.1 percent, the lowest monthly reading since November 2013.
Meanwhile, the data also shows service sector activity expanded at a slower pace in April.
The purchasing managers' index for the non-manufacturing sector fell slightly to 53.4 last month.
Cai Jin, vice-president of the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, attributes the slight fall to a slowdown in the construction industry.
"The PMI for the non-manufacturing sector fell because the construction industry slowed from a high level. Actually the service sector reflects steady operation in the market."
The steady development of the service sector is supported by progress made in fields including postal services, wholesale, Internet, software, and information technology.
China to Impose Tougher Administrative Penalties on Banking industry
The China Banking and Regulatory Commission is bringing in tougher rules to be applied to banks which break its rules.
Under the new regulations, individuals caught breaking CBRC rules could face life-time bans from operating in the banking sector.
Wang Kejin is with the CBRC and says this represents a fundamental change in the way the Commission deals with regulatory offenders.
"The original regulations didn't state clearly the punishments for violations. So, administrative penalties have mostly been focused on the organization, not the individual. The obscure regulations weakened the strength of our administrative penalties and compromise deterrence. It's not good for the steady and healthy development of the banking industry."
The amended rules also allow for violators to be punished in both in the place where the violations occurred, as well as where the company is registered.
China Unveils Measures to Shore up Job Market
China's State Council has unveiled four measures in a circular requiring governments at various levels to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation and create more jobs.
The guidelines state that local governments should implement more pro-active employment policies, while the central government should refine policies and continue encouraging mass entrepreneurship and startups.
The aim is to foster a new engine of economic growth.
The guidelines also state that the number of new jobs in urban areas and the surveyed urban unemployment rate will be added to the list of important macro-economic indicators.
Meawhile, all qualified enterprises nationwide will join in a campaign launched by the nation's unemployment insurance to encourage employers to maintain their workforces.
The government will also offer more support to entrepreneurship in the form of guaranteed loans.
A previous government-backed program for small guaranteed loans will be merged into entrepreneurship guaranteed loans.
The maximum sum will be 100-thousand yuan, around 16,300 U.S. dollars for each entrepreneurship guaranteed loan, and government fiscal revenues will help cover some of the interest.
The Chinese government has pledged to create more than 10 million urban jobs this year.
It has also pledged to ensure that the registered urban unemployment rate does not rise above 4.5 percent this year.
China Adjusts Subsidy Policy to Help Farmers
China's Ministry of Agriculture has announced a set of new subsidy policies for the agricultural sector.
The package includes 2.3 billion U.S. dollars of subsidies given directly to grain farmers.
Another 20.4 billion yuan will go to farmers to promote good crop varieties.
23.4 billion yuan will be used to support the appropriate management scale of grain, focusing on big professional bodies such as family farms and farmer cooperatives.
The ministry is also going to adjust the ongoing trial program on land use by adding another nine pilot regions in Jiangsu and Jiangxi provinces.
Under the pilot scheme, farmers are permitted to turn their land-use rights into shares in farming enterprises or cooperative societies.
China Overtakes U.S. to Become Australia's Top Foreign Investor
A report by the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) shows that for the first time China has become the largest source of foreign investment in Australia. It's thanks to a near ten billion U.S. dollar surge in real estate investment.
Australia received over 22 billion U.S. dollars of investment from China, approved by the FIRB in the 2013-2014 financial year.
China's investments in Australia accounted for 16.5 percent of total foreign investment approved in the period.
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