China’s GDP Grows at Slowest Pace in Almost a Decade

(Bloomberg) -- China’s gross domestic product, battered by collapsing exports, grew at the slowest pace in almost 10 years, probably marking the low point for the world’s third-biggest economy.

GDP expanded 6.1 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, after a 6.8 percent gain in the previous three months, the statistics bureau said in Beijing today. The figure was below the 6.2 percent median estimate of 13 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

Growth in industrial production and investment accelerated, adding to evidence that Premier Wen Jiabao’s 4 trillion yuan ($585 billion) stimulus plan is working. The Shanghai Composite Index fell from an eight-month high amid speculation that Wen will have to do more to increase consumption and wean the economy from a dependence on exports.

“They’ve stabilized the economy and now the challenge is to think about how to support consumption and how to support private investment,” said Stephen Green, head of China research at Standard Chartered Plc in Shanghai. “We’re still looking for stimulus measures to encourage consumption.”

Today’s report follows with a statement from U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner that China isn’t a currency manipulator. His stance eases pressure on China to allow its currency to rise, which would hurt efforts to revive exports.

From July 1 to the end of last year, the yuan rose just 0.4 percent against the dollar. Its value has been little changed since the beginning of the year.

Domestic Demand

The currency traded at 6.8313 against the dollar as of 11:34 a.m. in Shanghai, unchanged from before the announcement. Shanghai’s benchmark stock index fell 0.1 percent, trimming its gain this year to 39 percent, the second-best performance among 88 indexes tracked by Bloomberg. It earlier rose as much as 0.5 percent.

“While we are facing difficulty in relying on external demand, we have to turn back to domestic demand, including consumer spending and investment to sustain growth,” said statistics bureau spokesman Li Xiaochao.

Industrial production expanded 8.3 percent in March from a year earlier, up from 3.8 percent in the first two months, and urban fixed-asset investment surged 30.3 percent, the statistics bureau said. Retail sales rose 14.7 percent in March.

Urban disposable incomes rose 11.2 percent excluding inflation and rural cash incomes climbed 8.6 percent.

Read more at Bloomberg

Chinese Government Hasn't Decided on $40 Billion Agricultural Bank Bailout

(Bloomberg) -- Central Huijin Investment Co., a
government investment arm, said it hasn't decided on the bailout
of Agricultural Bank of China, weakest of the four-biggest
state-owned banks, according to a senior official.

Beijing-based Agricultural Bank may receive a $40 billion
capital injection from Huijin, the Economic Observer newspaper
reported today, without citing anyone.


Read more at Bloomberg Emerging Markets News

Singapore Petroleum Enters Oil, Gas Exploring Venture With China National

(Bloomberg) -- Singapore Petroleum Co., the only oil
refiner traded on the city state's stock exchange, will explore
for oil and gas with China National Offshore Oil Corp. in its
first venture off the Chinese coast.

Singapore Petroleum will operate and own 100 percent of
Block 26/18 in the Pearl River Mouth Basin in the South China Sea,
while China National has the right to take a stake of as much as
51 percent should a discovery be made, the Singapore company said
today in a statement.


Read more at Bloomberg Energy News

HK financier Francis Leung joins CVC as adviser

(Reuters) - Leung, a long-time banker to Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing with close China ties, was with Citigroup Global Markets as chairman of Asia until last year focusing on developing Citigroup's Greater China investment banking business, CVC said.




CVC, which is a major shareholder in global motor racing business Formula 1, owns interest in Australia's media group PBL Media, Japan's restaurant chain Skylark, Singapore's precision metals stamping firm Amtek, Malaysia's largest paper packaging firm GS Paper and Packaging, and Chinese wood fibreboards maker Plantation Timber Products.


Read more at Reuters.com Business News

China Tells Some Local Governments to Hold Prices for the Rest of the Year

(Bloomberg) -- China's top planning agency told
local governments in some regions to refrain from raising prices
for the rest of the year, seeking to curb inflation that rose to
a 33-month high in June.

The directive is for places where consumer-price gains
breached local targets by a ``relatively large margin,'' the
National Development and Reform Commission said in a statement
on its Web site today. Price increases connected with energy-
efficiency policies are exempt, the agency said.


Read more at Bloomberg Emerging Markets News

Yangtze Power's Profit Jumps 72 Percent on Output and Sale of Bank Stake

(Bloomberg) -- China Yangtze Power Co., operator of
the world's biggest hydropower project, said first-half profit
jumped 72 percent after the company sold shares in a bank and as
electricity output rose.

Net income surged to 2.25 billion yuan ($298 million), or
0.268 yuan a share, from 1.31 billion yuan, or 0.16 yuan, a year
earlier, Yangtze Power said in a statement to Shanghai's stock
exchange today. Sales rose 12 percent to 3.4 billion yuan.


Read more at Bloomberg Emerging Markets News

Madagascar, China sign deals worth $78 million

(Reuters) - China and Madagascar have signed four deals worth roughly $78 million for hotel construction and debt alleviation among other things, Malagasy officials said.

The deals confirmed agreements made at the China-Africa summit in Beijing last November between the Asian powerhouse and the enormous, mineral-rich island.


Read more at Reuters Africa

UPDATE 1-Cuba reports big jump in foreign debt

(Reuters) - HAVANA, July 27 - Cuba's actively serviced foreign
debt jumped nearly $2 billion in 2006 to $7.794 billion as
foreign suppliers more than doubled their credits to the
country, according to figures posted on the Web site of the
National Statistics Office on Friday.




Most of Cuba's new debt was believed by local analysts to be
due to fresh credits from China and Venezuela.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

UPDATE 1-New Oriental Education shares fall on miss

(Reuters) - NEW YORK, July 24 - New Oriental Education and
Technology Group Inc. missed analyst expectations that
it would make a fourth-quarter profit, sending its shares down
as much as 17.5 percent on Tuesday morning.




The provider of private education services in China posted
a net loss of $1.6 million, or 4 cents an American Depositary
Share, for the quarter ended May 31.


Read more at Reuters.com Market News

Copper Rises as Global Inventories Drop, Signaling Demand Outpaces Supply

(Bloomberg) -- Copper rebounded in New York after
global stockpiles of the metal declined, renewing supply
concerns.

Inventories tracked by the London Metal Exchange dropped
275 metric tons, or 0.3 percent, to 101,125 tons. Stockpiles
have tumbled 45 percent this year as imports surged in China,
the biggest consumer of the metal used in pipes and wires.
Before today, the price had gained 27 percent in 2007 as
worldwide demand outpaced mine output.


Read more at Bloomberg Commodities News

China could benefit from foreign banks-FDIC chmn

(Reuters) - Sheila Bair, chairman of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance
Corp., is visiting government officials and bankers in Beijing
and Shanghai to promote a deposit insurance program for
financial institutions in China.




She is expected to sign a memorandum of understanding with
People's Bank of China governor Zhou Xiaochuan to formalize a
consultative relationship to help China set up a system.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

DealTalk: Blackstone finds another way to benefit in China

(Reuters) - Not only did it find a wealthy new investor and position itself for deals in the world's most populous nation, but also the deal raised the profile of its M&A advisory business by leading to a highly visible role of advising the Chinese government on the acquisition of a stake in Barclays .




In doing so, Blackstone links its name to what is likely to be the year's biggest deal -- the sale of Dutch bank ABN AMRO . Barclays has used the investment from China to help increase its bid to 67.5 billion pounds in a battle with a rival group led by the Royal Bank of Scotland .


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand: Asia Local Bond Preview

(Bloomberg) -- The following events and economic
reports may influence trading in Asian local-currency bonds
today. Yields are from the previous session.

China: The government will further tighten monetary policy
after increasing lending and deposit rates last week, Hong Kong
Monetary Authority Chief Executive Joseph Yam said on Hong Kong
Commercial Broadcasting radio yesterday. Yam urged investors to
be careful as financial markets are growing more turbulent, the
broadcaster reported. The government will sell 28 billion yuan
($3.7 billion) of six-month notes tomorrow.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

Copper Futures May Gain on Speculation Global Growth Will Increase Demand

(Bloomberg) -- Copper, little changed in New York,
may gain on speculation global growth will increase demand for
the metal used in pipes and wires.

The U.S. economy expanded at the fastest rate in more than a
year last quarter, economists estimated before a government
report this week. China's economy in the second quarter grew at
the fastest pace in 12 years. Copper, which generally moves in
tandem with economic expansion, has gained more than fourfold in
the past four years while global demand outpaced production.


Read more at Bloomberg Commodities News

UPDATE 1-China silences green GDP study, report says

(Reuters) - BEIJING, July 23 - China has stopped the public
release of an official study putting a cost to the nation's
environmental damage, a government researcher told a Chinese
newspaper, blaming official reluctance to confront pollution.




The Beijing News reported on Monday that the release of a
"green GDP" report computing the cost of pollution and ecological
degradation in 2005 had been "indefinitely postponed".


Read more at Reuters.com Economic News

Barclays Raises ABN Offer to $93.4 Billion With China, Singapore Funding

(Bloomberg) -- Barclays Plc, vying to buy ABN Amro
Holding NV in the biggest banking takeover, raised its offer to
67.5 billion euros ($93.4 billion) after securing investments
from the governments of China and Singapore.

Barclays's revised bid is worth 35.73 euros a share and
includes 37 percent cash, the London-based company said today,
4.3 percent more than its previous offer. The bid remains lower
than the 38.40 euro-a-share offer made last week by a trio of
banks led by Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc.


Read more at Bloomberg Emerging Markets News

JPMorgan says wins approval to incorporate in China

(Reuters) - More than a dozen foreign banks are queuing to incorporate
their operations in China, whose banking market was fully opened
to overseas lenders late last year as part of Beijing's
commitment to the World Trade Organisation, which it joined in
2001.




Locally incorporated foreign banks are allowed to offer
full-fledged banking services, including credit card issuance and
local currency-denominated wealth management services, to Chinese
customers.


Read more at Reuters.com Government Filings News

Canada Stocks May Fall on Slowing Chinese Demand; Barrick, Inmet May Fall

(Bloomberg) -- Canadian stocks may fall after China
raised interest rates and U.S. companies, including Google Inc. and
Caterpillar Inc., reported profit below analysts' estimates.

Gold prices in London declined on speculation that the three-
week rally was overdone, given expectations for increased sales
from central-bank reserves. Barrick Gold Corp., the world's biggest
gold producer, and Inmet Mining Corp. may decline, based on bids
submitted to the Toronto Stock Exchange.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

Copper Rises to 2-Month High as Surging Chinese Economy Spurs Metal Usage

(Bloomberg) -- Copper rose to a two-month high in
New York on speculation that demand will remain strong in China,
the world's largest consumer of the metal.

China's economy expanded during the second quarter at the
fastest pace in 12 years, the statistics bureau said in Beijing
yesterday. Rising demand from China has helped spur a 28 percent
rally in copper this year as imports of the metal used in pipes
and wires surged to record levels.


Read more at Bloomberg Commodities News

INSTANT VIEW: China raises rates after strong growth

(Reuters) - KEY POINTS




-- The People's Bank of China raised the one-year deposit rate by 0.27 percentage point to 3.33 percent, and the one-year lending rate by 0.27 percentage point to 6.84 percent.


Read more at Reuters.com Business News