| China's industrial output up 15.7% in April (05/14/08) | ||
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BEIJING, May 14 (Xinhua) -- The industrial output of China's major enterprises grew 15.7 percent year-on-year in April, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Wednesday. The figure represents a drop of 2.1 percentage points over the previous month, or a drop of 1.7 percentage points over the same month of last year the bureau said. Major enterprises are those with an annual sales volume of at least five million yuan. An analyst with the NBS said the Tomb-Sweeping Day, which fell on April 4, was for the first time marked by a public holiday when a large number of industrial enterprises stopped production activities. That was one of the reasons why the industrial production cooled down in the past month. The sales ratio of the enterprises stood at 97.8 percent, 0.5 percentage points lower than the same period of last year. Delivered exports totaled 659.5 billion yuan (94.2 billion U.S. dollars) in value, up 15.6 percent. Two-digit growth in the industrial output was registered in the textile, nonmetal minerals products, ferrous metals smelting and pressing, telecommunications devices, computer and other electronic devices, and chemical materials and related processing industries. The output of coal rose 13.9 percent year on year, crude oil, 0.5 percent, electricity, 12.8 percent, and rolled steel, 10.2 percent. Production of sedans reached 520,000 units in April, an increase of 26.3 percent from a year earlier, the bureau said. That brings China's retail sales of consumer goods in the first four months of this year to 3.3697 trillion yuan, up 21.0 percent, compared with 20.6 percent growth rate recorded in the first quarter of this year. Full story BEIJING, May 11 -- China's monetary authorities are struggling to address conflicting policy goals, but inflation will remain the top policy concern, the country's central bank governor said on Saturday. While the United States and other countries are more focused on fending off a recession, China's monetary policy must target inflation over growth and employment, Zhou Xiaochuan, the People's Bank of China governor, told a forum in Lujiazui, Shanghai's financial center. Full story Banker: Reducing trade surplus key to growth BEIJING, May 11 -- China needs to cut its high savings rate to boost consumption and reduce the trade surplus, People's Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said Saturday. "The government has pledged to boost consumption and cut the surpluses in trade and capital accounts," Zhou said at the Lujiazui Forum 2008 in Shanghai. That "requires that we reduce the current high savings ratio," he said. Full story BEIJING, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Amid a major wave of international grain price hikes, China has managed to maintain stable domestic prices. Wheat prices on the Chicago Board of Trade surged more than 140 percent in March, and rice prices went up over 80 percent.Full story The factory-gate prices of raw materials, fuel and power were up 11.8 percent. Full story Inflation expected to go down in Q2 BEIJING, May 7 -- Inflation could dip to 7.5 percent in the second quarter from 8 percent in the first, but inflationary pressures will stay strong because of surging grain prices and robust investment, said a top government think tank. "Seasonal changes and government measures to boost agricultural supplies may cause consumer prices to slide in the second quarter," the State Information Center said in a report. "But inflationary pressure is still mounting because of domestic and international factors." Full story Greater controls set to protect economy BEIJING, May. 10 -- High inflation and fixed-asset investment growth are China's biggest economic concerns, prompting authorities to persist with a tight monetary policy, Vice-Premier Wang Qishan said on Friday. In an address to the Lujiazui Forum in Shanghai, Wang also said the government would take specific measures, including prudent fiscal policies and strengthened and refined macroeconomic controls, to curb an overheated economy and inflation. Full story China's inflation pressures ease, but target still elusive BEIJING, May 4 (Xinhua) -- The slowing growth of China's main inflation indicator is set to continue in the April figures, thanks to falling farm produce prices, market analysts said on Sunday. The consumer price index (CPI), which hit 8.7 percent for February and 8.3 percent for March, would probably be around 8 percent for April over the same month last year, said Chen Jijun, an analyst with Citic Securities. Full story
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