IFF Newsletter Issue 75

TIME：2023-05-11

From the Editor

China’s exports growth slowed while imports shrank further in April, official data showed on Tuesday. China’s passenger vehicle sales grew 2.5% in April from a month earlier while surging 55.5% from a year earlier when COVID measures affected productions and sales. China’s regulators have asked real estate brokerage agencies to reduce fees for housing transactions and leasing services.

WHO declared an end to COVID-19 as a public health emergency on Friday, more than three years after the virus first made a global pandemic. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that a failure to raise the US’s debt ceiling could be catastrophic.

Newsletter

Latest from the IFF

Hong Kong remains a strong supporter of multilateralism and global cooperation, Chief Executive

Hong Kong remains a strong supporter of multilateralism and global economic cooperation and has been proactively reaching out to our international partners on various fronts to promote global cooperation, said the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region John Lee in his opening remarks at the International Finance Forum high-level conference.

Lee added that Hong Kong is striving for early accession to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, a free trade agreement in the Asia-Pacificregion. It is now the world’s largest free trade agreement and Hong Kong is committed to promoting regional economic integration through RCEP.

“I am grateful to the International Finance Forum for choosing Hong Kong in hosting this high-level global conference and, more significantly, in launching its Hong Kong Centre on the Forum’s 20th anniversary,” said Lee.

Lee said: “as a premier international financial centre and an irreplaceable connection between the Mainland and the rest of the world, Hong Kong is the ideal base to further the IFF’s mission to promote international dialogue and multilateral cooperation in the financial realm”.

Newsletter

China News

China April car sales rise 2.5%

China’s passenger vehicle sales grew 2.5% in April from a month earlier while surging 55.5% from a year earlier when COVID measures affected productions and sales.

Sales of new energy vehicles (NEVs), which include pure battery electric cars and plug-in hybrids, dropped 3.6% from a month earlier and jumped 85.6% from a year earlier, data from the China Passenger Car Association showed on Tuesday.

Sales of NEVs accounted for 32% of total car sales in April, 70.5% of which were of Chinese brands.

China's regulators tell property brokers to lower fees

Chinese regulators have asked real estate brokerage agencies to reduce fees for housing transactions and leasing services on Monday.

In a guideline to the brokerage services, authorities pointed out that some real estate brokers have charged excessive, unclear and bound fees and misused clients’ personal information, which added financial burden on parties of transactions.

Brokerage service charges should be determined through negotiations by all parties involved in the transactions.

Agencies are also encouraged to apply different pricing depending on the size of transaction so that the higher the price, the lower the service fees.

China's trade in services grows 8.7% in Q1

China’s trade in services grew at an annualised rate of 8.7% in the first three months of the year, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed on Tuesday.

Services imports rose 21.6% from a year ago while exports fell 4.7% in the first quarter.

Trade in travel services rebounded in the first quarter with imports growing 58% and exports expanding 38.4% as the country reopened.

China's logitistics activities slow in April

The expansion of China’s logistics activities slowed in April, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The index tracking China’s logistics activities slowed to 53.8%, down from 55.5% in March, data from the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing showed. The 50-mark separates growth from contraction.

The sub-index for new orders grew 52.3% in April, down by 1.4% from March.

China exports growth slows, imports fall deepens

China’s exports growth slowed while imports shrank further in April, official data showed on Tuesday.

Exports growth slowed to 8.5% from March’s 14.8% in US dollar terms. Imports fell 7.9%, down from March’s drop of 1.4%, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.

Hong Kong raises interests rates after Fed hike

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) raised its main policy rate following a rate hike by the US Federal Reserve.

The Special Administrative Region’s monetary policy moves in lock-step with the Fed as the Hong Kong dollar is pegged to the greenback.

The HKMA raised its base rate by 0.25 percentage to 5.5%. hours after the Fed raised its target rate to 5%-5.25%.

ewsletter

International News

WHO declares end to COVID pandemic

The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared an end to COVID-19 as a public health emergency on Friday, more than three years after the virus was first named a pandemic.

The COVID-19 Emergency Committee met on Thursday and recommended Director-General of the WHO - Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declare an end to the COVID pandemic.

The pandemic has killed more than 6.92 million people worldwide with more than 765.2 million people affected, according to the WHO’s Coronavirus Dashboard.

Tedros said the virus is “still killing and changing” and “ the risk remains of new variants emerging that cause new surges in cases and deaths”.

Yellen warns of debt ceiling catastrophe

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that a failure to raise the US’s debt ceiling could be catastrophic.

The US government could run out of money by early June if it failed to reach an agreement to increase the debt ceiling.

In an interview with US media ABC, Yellen said debt ceiling need to be raised to “avoid economic calamity”.

The US government could default on its debt if the debt ceiling was not raised.

"Whether it's defaulting on interest payments that are due on the debt or payments due for Social Security recipients or to Medicare providers, we would simply not have enough cash to meet all of our obligations," she told ABC.

China investment in Europe hits decade low in 2022

China’s investment in Europe dropped to a decade low in 2022 according to a study released on Monday.

The country’s investment to the European Union and Britain fell 22% from the previous year, which brought China’s investment in the region back to the same level as that in 2013.

The study jointly released by Rhodium Group and the Mercator Institute for China Studies said the retreat in Europe is in line with a decline in China’s global outbound investment.

Sri Lanka holds first creditor meeting, Beijing attends as observer

Sri Lanka held its first meeting of creditor nations in which China attended as an observer.

The meeting, initiated by Japan, India and France, invited all bilateral creditors.

Sri Lanka owes $7.1 billion to bilateral creditors with $3 billion owed to China, Reuters reported.

Biden administration allows Chinese airlines to increase flights to US

The United States will allow Chinese airlines to fly 12 weekly round-trips, up from the current eight weekly flights.

The number of flights matches those of US carriers permitted by Chinese authorities, which are a small fraction of the more than 150 round-trip flights allowed by each countries before the pandemic.

The US Transportation Department said its goal was a gradual, broader reopening of the US-China air services market.