George Soros: China is recovering fast from crisis

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-06-13 17:03

BEIJING -- George Soros, chairman of Soros Fund Management, said Saturday he has confidence in China's economy and believes it is recovering fast from the economic downturn.

Soros made the remarks in an interview with Xinhua after meeting with Chen Feng, chairman of China's HNA Group. Soros has invested 50 million US dollars into Hainan Airlines, a subsidiary of the group.

Soros said China's economic growth had benefited from globalization, and China benefited from the financial crisis because it was not directly affected.

"Its financial institutions are largely unaffected," Soros said, noting that with a good balance sheet, China was poised to balance its external accounts and in position to engage in stimulus investments.

But Soros also pointed out that China's exports had been adversely affected. "China is dependent on exports, which have a high proportion in GDP."

Soros said China was taking steps to finance exports by providing finance and investing abroad. "Given the favorable factors in China, China is actively cooperating with the rest of world and has its economy recovering fast."

Soros stressed that he was "very interested" in investing in China, and was looking for opportunities.

But he only mentioned he was more interested in longer-term private equities, and refused to define his areas of interest.

Chen Feng told Xinhua that Soros still had confidence in Hainan Airlines after more than a decade of investment.

China's economic growth hit a 10-year low of 6.1 percent in the first quarter, while exports and imports shrank for the seventh month in a row in May.

Exports fell 26.4 percent in May from the same period a year ago to 88.758 billion US dollars, compared with a decline of 22.6 percent in April. Imports were down 25.2 percent to 75.37 billion US dollars, according to the General Administration of Customs.