Quick view

Improvement in some economic indicators in the first quarter may signal a recovery. Has China's economy really bottomed out? Page 2

Jin Yunrong (Tammy Liu) is one of an increasing number of fashion celebrities across China promoting environmental thinking. Page 3

China's listed companies are poised to report their biggest drop in earnings in at least two years. Is this the beginning of the end of the bad news? Page 4

Asset quality in Chinese banks has not deteriorated despite the banks' recent record-setting lending growth, but analysts warn that bad loans may emerge once the economy bottoms out. Page4

Quyang, capital of China's once-thriving sculpture export industry, has fallen on hard times since the global economic slump drastically reduced orders for the European-style statues, busts and carvings that this barren corner of Hebei province has made its specialty. Page 5

There's more than meets the eye to the price of soybeans. Page 6

For a nation of 1.3 billion people, food security is a top priority. Page 7

China may be a safe haven during the economic crisis, said Mark Norbom, President and CEO of GE China. . Page 8

Carmakers are cutting costs any way they can these days, but China is one place where they won't be skimping. Page 9

Liu Mingkang, head of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, warned on Thursday that banks must be "on high alert for the accumulation of hidden risks as loans surge." Chinese banks lent a record 1.89 trillion yuan ($276 billion) in March as they responded to the government's calls for help in priming the economic pump.

Richard Yorke, president and CEO of HSBC Bank (China) Co, said the global banking giant expects to capitalize on China's increasingly affluent population and fast-growing financial market to open around 20 outlets a year in the coming years, and will consider expanding its business scope by cooperating with local partners.

China's first-quarter GDP growth totaled 6.574 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 6.1 percent. It was much slower than last year's 10.6 percent growth, and a shade lower than the 6.8 percent of the previous quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics said last week.

Industrial output rose 5.1 percent year-on-year, with much of the growth achieved in March. Retail sales rose 15.9 percent in real terms, up 3.6 percentage points from a year earlier, while the consumer price index (CPI) went down 0.6 percent from the same period of last year.

Electricity usage dropped at a slower pace in China during the first quarter of this year, thanks to the government's stimulus package, which has helped boost industrial production. The consumption fell 4 percent to 781 billion kWh while power supply of the country's major power grid fell 3.3 percent to 680 billion kWh in the first quarter from a year earlier, the China Electricity Council said in a statement last week.

The country's largest trading expo, China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair), shifted its focus to the domestic market as demand in the overseas markets has shrunk and exports have declined for five months in a row. The 105th session of the fair, which started in Guangzhou last Tuesday, managed to get domestic buyers, including representatives from large shopping malls, chain stores and wholesale markets, to participate in the fair, said Mu Xinhai, the fair's spokesman.

Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, last week launched a job optimization and regrouping program to reduce labor costs in China. Under the program, the company plans to relocate some of the mid-management staff at its stores to similar posts in new stores that are being opened in China. The company intends to start this by shifting five to six mid-management posts from each of its present stores, said Leally Huang, public relations manager, Wal-Mart China.

China has authorized its provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities to approve FDI proposals worth up to $100 million last month.

There are 51,000 people each of whom possess more than 100 million yuan in China, and at least 825,000 people have individual wealth of more than 10 million yuan, according to luxury publishing group Hurun Report.

(China Daily 04/20/2009 page1)