What's news

Caution on digital currency plan

China is accelerating research into digital currency, as the country hopes to use new techniques to digitize paper currency and make transactions more transparent and efficient, a top central bank official said. Since China floated plans for a legally backed digital currency in 2014, two rounds of revisions have been made to the original plan while further research is still under way, according to Yao Qian, the central bank official leading the digital currency research center. China will first introduce the currency in certain money markets and promote its use in a gradual and cautious way, Yao said, without giving a specific timetable.

Lancang-Mekong expo opens in Yunnan

The first session of the Lancang-Mekong subregional commodity exposition opened in southwestern China's Yunnan province on Tuesday. Officials, business representatives, experts and scholars from China, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Myanmar are attending the expo. They will discuss issues including the construction of trade parks, financial cooperation, the internationalization of the renminbi and the Maritime Silk Road. Sutee Markboon, deputy minister of the Ministry of Interior of Thailand, said the expo was a good opportunity for the six countries in the Lancang-Mekong subregion to cooperate, learn from each other, and boost people's living standards.

Two-way direct investment grows

The volume of foreign direct investment flows between the United States and China has been accelerating in both directions in the past 25 years, according to a report released by Rhodium Group and the National Committee on US-China Relations. It said US companies had been active in the Chinese economy over the past three decades, while Chinese investors began to expand their US presence as well in the past decade, turning the FDI relationship into a two-way street with multibillion dollar flows every year.

Treasury bond futures closing lower

China's treasury bond futures closed lower on Wednesday, with the contract for settlement in December 2016 closing 0.049 percent lower at 101.5 yuan ($14.78). The March 2017 contract closed 0.129 percent lower at 100.64 yuan. The June 2017 contract closed 0.105 percent lower at 100.265 yuan.

Huawei unveils Smart City strategy

Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei showcased its latest technology and strategy for Smart City transformations at the Smart City Expo World Congress 2016, which opened on Tuesday in Barcelona. The company said its strategy was centered on providing leading new information and communications technologies across cloud devices to enable governments and industries deliver advanced "people-centered services" that enriched people's lives, drove economic growth and created sustainable communities. Among the solutions showcased were Huawei's Intelligent Operation Center as well as city management solutions based on the internet of things.

Eurozone trade surplus increases in September

The eurozone's trade surplus increased in September, according to data released on Tuesday by Eurostat, the European Union's statistical office. Early estimates for the eurozone international trade in goods showed that there was a 26.5 billion euro ($28.48 billion) surplus in September, compared with 19.2 billion euros surplus for the corresponding month in 2015. Intra-euro area trade remained nearly stable at 148.3 billion euros in September, compared with the same month last year, Eurostat said. In September, imports into the euro area stood at 150.2 billion euros, falling 2.0 percent compared with the same period last year.

US retail sales jump in October

US retail sales jumped in October, pointing to sustained consumer spending and economic strength in the fourth quarter of the year, the US Commerce Department reported on Tuesday. Retail sales edged up 0.8 percent from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted $465.9 billion in October, after an upwardly revised 1 percent gain in September, the Commerce Department said. Compared with a year earlier, total retail sales rose 4.3 percent last month. Purchases of motor vehicles and parts rose 1.1 percent in October, sales at sporting goods, hobby, book and music stores rose 1.3 percent, and online retailers' sales climbed 1.5 percent. Excluding the volatile auto sales, total retail sales rose 0.8 percent last month, the Commerce Department said.

IMF says that Jordan faces challenges

The International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday that Jordan's economy continued to face challenges, despite substantial successes it had achieved in the past years. The remarks came in a report after the completion of the IMF's first review of Jordan's economy, following a $700 million grant agreement between the two sides. The IMF said the country needed to make reforms of its current system of tax exemptions, to support fiscal consolidation, because the system did not serve the purpose of boosting investment and employment as intended.

Dutch economy grows 0.7 percent in Q3

The Dutch economy grew by 0.7 percent in the third quarter of 2016, the Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics announced on Tuesday. The growth percentage was the same as in the first two quarters of this year. The quarterly growth of the Dutch economy was the tenth in a row. "Our economy continues to perform exceptionally well and is broadly driven," Henk Kamp, minister of economic affairs, said in a statement. "We are growing more than twice as fast as the European average and have shown solid and firm growth for two and half years in a still uncertain international situation."

Crackdown on tax evaders in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka's Inland Revenue Department will carry out island-wide raids on businesses to crack down on tax evasion, a local media report said on Wednesday. Commissioner General of the Inland Revenue Department, Kalyani Dahanayake, was quoted in media reports saying that the department's aim was to widen the tax base and get people to pay their taxes. "We will be going all over country, even after office hours, to bring in people who are not in the tax net," she told a forum on the government's 2017 budget. Sri Lanka's Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said the department had more than doubled the number of tax files since the new government came to power in January 2015, but many remained outside the tax net.

Spain's consumer prices up 0.7%

Spain's consumer prices rose 0.7 percent in October when compared with the same month a year earlier, according to Consumer Price Index data which was confirmed by Spain's Statistical Office on Tuesday. The figure was higher than the annual inflation rate in September when prices rose by 0.2 percent year-on-year - and coincided with advanced data provided by the statistics office at the end of October. The figure is also the highest since August, 2013. According to the statistics office, the prices of items related to housing fell by 0.4 percent, transport prices rose by 1.7 percent, prices for food and nonalcoholic items rose by 0.3 percent and those of items related to leisure and culture fell by 1.9 percent.

China Daily-Agencies

(China Daily 11/17/2016 page14)