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Agriculture Brief Investment Politics & Society

China’s countryside requires ‘extraordinary measures’ to catch up with cities

China faces a massive task in making sure its rural areas don’t fall further behind the growing urban economy, agriculture minister Han Changfu said at Boao yesterday. The country’s farm sector needs to be modernised and entrepreneurs should be supported in returning to rural areas to open businesses, Han said. So far, a central feature […]

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Brief Commodities Consumer Economics & Trade Manufacturing Markets

Trump predicts China will open its markets

President Donald Trump took to Twitter to defend his approach to dealing with China by predicting that the Asian country would bow to the US’s wishes and open up its market, Bloomberg reports. “China will take down its Trade Barriers because it is the right thing to do,” he tweeted to his 50 million followers on Sunday. “Taxes will […]

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Brief Economics & Trade Investment

Chinese local governments scrap $350 billion of public-private parternships

Beijing’s crackdown on local government debt has led to regional authorities cancelling 2,334 projects financed through public-private partnerships (PPP) worth a combined RMB 2.25 trillion ($357 billion), Caixin Global reports. The Ministry of Finance overhauled the PPP approval system in November after the number of such projects skyrocketed in 2017. Local officials were given till the end […]

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Banking & Finance Brief Markets

Yuan strengthens, forex reserves grow in March

China’s forex reserves edged higher in March on the back of continued dollar weakness and anticipations of a trade war with the U.S., suggesting confidence in the economy. Reserves grew by $9 billion last month to $3.143 trillion, according to data from China’s central bank, exceeding expectations of a $6 billion rise (Reuters poll). This […]

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Banking & Finance Brief Investment Markets

BlackRock chief sees Chinese market as key opportunity

Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, named China as one of the company’s top priorities for the year, following the country’s recent opening-up of its markets to foreign asset managers, the Financial Times reports. China was highlighted in Fink’s annual letter to shareholders as one of three main trends with the potential to “dramatically reshape our […]