Saturday, May 2, 2009

The Associated Press

The nationwide jobless rate jumped to its highest in more than four years in March while household spending continued to slide, underscoring the ongoing pain being inflicted on the world's second-biggest economy. Prices also fell, fueling deflation worries.

A day after the government released a bullish report on industrial production, it said Friday that unemployment rose to 4.8 percent, up from 4.4 percent in February and the worst reading since August 2004.

The actual number of unemployed jumped 25 percent from a year earlier to 3.35 million, while the number of employed workers fell 1.4 percent.

Meanwhile, the key

consumer price index, excluding volatile fresh food, fell 0.1 percent, the first decline since September 2007.

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(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-05-01 11:22

The Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) of China's manufacturing sector rose for the fifth straight month in April to 53.5 percent, up 1.1 percentage points from a month earlier, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP) said Friday.

It was the second consecutive month the PMI rebounded above 50 percent since July 2008, when the index fell to 48.4 percent.

The PMI includes a package of indices that measure economic performance. The survey, jointly conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), covers purchasing and supply managers of more than 700 manufacturers across China.

All the April indices, except those measuring finished product inventory, raw materials inventory and suppliers' delivery time, rose with most up by less than 2 percentage points.

Indices measuring output and new orders rose by 0.5 and 2.0 percentage points to remain above 50 percent for a third straight month.

The purchasing price index was up 3.0 percentage points to 51.3 percent, rebounding to above 50 percent for the first time since September last year.

"The continuous rebound of the PMI shows Chinese economy is on track for recovery. The first-quarter investment, consumption and export figures also reflected this trend." said Zhang Liqun, a researcher with the Development Research Center of the State Council.

The PMI is the first economic indicator for April, offering a glimpse of the country's economic outlook. Some Q1 and March statistics indicated that government stimulus measures had produced positive results, although economic growth slowed to a 10-year low in the first quarter.

First-quarter industrial output grew 5.1 percent year on year with a rise of 8.3 percent in March alone. Fixed-asset investment rose 28.8 percent in nominal terms to 2.81 trillion yuan ($413 billion). In real terms, fixed-asset investment rose more than 30 percent.

Since late last year, China has taken steps to ease the domestic impact of the global downturn. These included a 4-trillion-yuan economic stimulus package, a plan to expand rural home appliance purchases and support plans for key industries.

The People's Bank of China, the central bank, has cut interest rates five times and reduced banks' required reserve ratio four times since September .

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Central bank official sees 2009 growth near 8%

(Agencies)

Updated: 2009-04-22 12:46

China's economy will grow close to the government's target of 8 percent this year, Yi Gang, a vice governor of the People's Bank of China, said on Wednesday.

Speaking to the annual meeting of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Yi said that any rise in the consumer price index in 2009 would be very low. He said he hoped prices would rise, not fall.

It hopes for equilibrium in its external payments because it recognizes that a sharp rise in its balance of payments surplus is not sustainable, Yi added.

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Chinese firm 'raises $1.26b' in biggest IPO

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-05-01 09:03

China Zhongwang Holdings Ltd raised HK$9.8 billion ($1.26 billion) as it priced the world's largest initial public offering in nine months toward the low end of an offering range, said two people familiar with the sale.

The nation's largest maker of extruded aluminum products

The Liaoyang, northeastern China-based company was tapping investor demand for stocks of companies that could benefit from China's 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) package to stimulate the economy. The MSCI World Index rallied for seven weeks through April 24, raising optimism the IPO market is coming out of the doldrums.

Still, Zhongwang priced the IPO, the largest completed since a $2.5 billion offering by Saudi Arabian Mining Co in July, toward the low end of the HK$6.80-to-HK$8.80 offering range as a global economic slowdown and the spread of swine flu clouded the market outlook.

"Recently the market has been in a consolidation mode," said Winson Fong, who helps manage $2 billion at SG Asset Management HK Ltd. "The market seems to be coming to the end of the rebound. People are getting more cautious."

IPO market

The sharpest annual decline of the MSCI World Index in at least 39 years in 2008 forced more than 300 companies to put such sales on hold. Hong Kong's IPO market had its slowest first quarter in a decade, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Led by its 45-year-old founder and Chairman Liu Zhongtian, Zhongwang generated 55 percent of its revenue last year from sales to industrial users, including State-owned rail carriage makers, according to its share sale prospectus. Extruded aluminum products used in the industrial sector carry a gross profit margin of more than three times that of those used in the construction industry, its other target market, it added.

China said it would spend 1.25 trillion yuan to develop its railway network,