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Banking & Finance Brief Health Care Property

Coronavirus raises threat of China developer defaults

China’s weakest property developers risk defaulting on their US dollar bonds, as home sales suffer and access to cash dries up due to the coronavirus outbreak, reported the Financial Times.  Defaults on dollar bonds by Chinese issuers are rare and missed payments by developers have been almost non-existent in recent years, even as overall corporate defaults in […]

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Banking & Finance Brief Economics & Trade Health Care

China first-quarter economic hit from coronavirus looking more severe: Reuters poll

The coronavirus likely halved China’s economic growth in the current quarter compared with the previous three months, more severe than thought just three weeks ago and triggering expectations for earlier interest rate cuts, a Reuters poll found.  The March 3-5 poll of more than 40 economists, based both in and outside mainland China, forecast growth to fall […]

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Brief Health Care Tech, Media & Telecom

China’s telecoms carriers push to complete 5G network roll-out amid coronavirus crisis

China is pushing ahead with the nationwide roll-out of 5G mobile services amid the coronavirus crisis, as the country’s three telecommunications carriers vow to complete their infrastructure deployments without delay, reported the South China Morning Post.  While that commitment may have fallen short of the “accelerated 5G implementation” the central government wanted from China Mobile, China […]

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Banking & Finance Brief Health Care

Provincial pension funds face new squeeze as government waives contributions

China’s policies aimed at easing the financial burden on companies struggling to cope with the coronavirus epidemic could end up putting additional fiscal pressure on many provinces as some measures are likely to deprive them of much-needed income, reported Caixin. Hubei, the province at the epicenter of the outbreak of the new coronavirus, is particularly vulnerable […]

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Autos Banking & Finance Brief Economics & Trade Health Care

China’s passenger car sales fall 80% in February on coronavirus epidemic

Passenger car retail sales in China, the world’s biggest auto market, fell 80% in February because of the coronavirus epidemic, one of the country’s industry associations said on Wednesday, reported Reuters. The China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) said in a statement that China’s overall passenger car sales dropped 80%, without giving a full sales figure for […]