What's news

Authorities lift ban on Japanese carp

China has resumed imports of Japanese carp or koi, removing a ban imposed amid viral disease outbreaks at Japanese fish farms in 2003, authorities in Shanghai said on Tuesday. The first shipment of 20 Japanese koi arrived in Shanghai on Friday and is undergoing a quarantine inspection at the airport, the Shanghai Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau said. After the inspection, the carp will be put under quarantine for another 30 days at a designated fish farm for further observation, it said.

Flexible car loan policy under consideration

China is considering a flexible loan policy for car purchases to encourage automobile consumption, a major driving force for economic growth. The loan-to-value ratio of automobile purchases will be flexible and set according to macroeconomic and automobile industrial conditions, according to a draft decision released by the central bank and the top banking regulator on Tuesday. Previously, consumers could only borrow up to 80 percent of the total car price from banks.

Solar, wind power prices to be cut

China is reducing the amount of money it pays to newly-completed solar and wind power generators for their electricity, in order to reflect declines in construction costs, the country's price regulator and economic planner said on Monday. The nation will cut tariffs paid to solar farms by as much as 19 percent in 2017 from this year's levels, and by as much as 15 percent for wind mills in 2018 from current prices, according to a statement posted on the National Development and Reform Commission's website. The changes will help reduce subsidies paid to new photovoltaic and wind power projects by about 6 billion yuan ($863 million) annually, the commission said.

Bigger service trade deficit posted

China posted a bigger foreign service trade deficit in November, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange said Tuesday. The deficit stood at $25.4 billion last month, up from $20.9 billion in October and $23.3 billion in September, the data showed. Income from trade in services was $23.7 billion last month, while expenditures totaled $49.1 billion.

Commercial crude oil stocks fall 1.55%

China's commercial crude oil inventories declined 1.55 percent month-on-month by the end of November despite a sharp rise in imports. While net imports of crude oil increased 12.8 percent in November, the amount of oil refined decreased. Commercial crude oil inventories went down after other types of reserves were deducted. Diesel reserves also dropped due to higher demand as the economy stabilizes. Gasoline stocks rose slightly as the cold weather affected traveling and reduced demand for petrol.

Xinjiang trains offer free Wi-Fi service

Most passengers traveling by trains administered by railway bureaus in northwestern China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region will be able to enjoy free wireless network access, starting from this year's Spring Festival travel rush. Passengers aboard non high-speed, air-conditioned lines to and from Xinjiang can also surf the web for movies, news and online games by verifying their mobile phones starting Monday, the Urumqi Railway Administration said. Most routes operated by railway bureaus in Xinjiang will provide onboard Wi-Fi services as part of an initiative to improve the experience of passengers on the often long, tedious trips.

Samsung retrieves over 90% of fire phones

Samsung Electronics said on Tuesday that it has retrieved over 90 percent of fire-prone Galaxy Note 7 smartphones sold in South Korea, leading the company to consider software upgrades. Over 850,000 Note 7 devices have been retrieved among about 950,000 phones sold there, raising the recovery rate to 90 percent. Samsung said in a statement that it was considering an upgrade of the software patch the firm released in October, to limit the maximum charging capability of the Note 7 to 60 percent.

French jobless claims decline again in Nov

France's jobless claims declined for the third month in November, the longest streak since 2008, in a recovery that comes too late to rescue the presidency of Francois Hollande. The number of people actively looking for work fell 0.9 percent, or 31,800, last month to 3.45 million, the Labor Ministry said on Monday. That compared with an estimate of economists of 3.48 million.

Unemployment rate rises in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka's unemployment rate rose to 4.6 percent in the second quarter of 2016, compared with 4.2 percent in the first quarter of the year, official data showed on Tuesday. According to a survey made by Sri Lanka's Census and Statistics Department, the number of unemployed people was estimated as 377,987 during Q2. Unemployment among females was higher than that among males in all age groups, the survey revealed.

Toshiba nuclear writedown looms

Toshiba Corp can't get past its accounting problems. The Japanese company, which paid a record fine a year ago for its bookkeeping practices, warned that it may now have to take another charge of several billion dollars related to an acquisition made by US unit Westinghouse Electric. The company's shares fell 12 percent to 392 yen at the close in Tokyo on Tuesday, the biggest decline since December 2015, after earlier reports that it may book a loss of as much as 500 billion yen ($4.3 billion). Toshiba issued a statement after the market closed, saying that while the final writedown was yet to be determined, it would affect earnings.

Porsche wins top court ruling on VW battle

Porsche Automobil Holding SE won a key legal victory in its effort to end years of litigation stemming from a failed attempt to take full control of Volkswagen AG in 2008. Germany's highest civil court dismissed an appeal by hedge funds including Viking Global Equities LP and Glenhill Capital LP, Porsche Holding said Friday in a statement. The investors were seeking around 1.2 billion euros ($1.25 billion) in damages from alleged market manipulation triggered by short-selling transactions, swaps and options related to VW voting stock.

Brazil economists see lower growth ahead

Brazil economists cut their economic growth forecast for 2017 for the tenth consecutive week, while estimating inflation to slow but not enough to meet the official target. Brazil's gross domestic product will expand 0.5 percent next year, according to economists polled weekly by the central bank. Only three months ago, they expected the Latin America's largest economy to emerge from a two-year recession and grow 1.36 percent in 2017. Inflation expectations have been falling more slowly: economists now expect the benchmark IPCA consumer price index to finish 2017 at 4.85 percent, still above the government's 4.5 percent target.

Tesla CEO hints at massive upgrades

To the pleasant surprise of Tesla fans, CEO Elon Musk on Christmas Eve responded to many of their questions on Twitter and talked about the company's exciting enhancement plans. Supercharger stations are a network of fast-charging stations built by Tesla Motors to allow longer journeys for their all-electric vehicles through quick charging of the battery packs. Tesla began building the network in 2012, and as of today there are more than 760 supercharger stations globally with some 4,800 chargers.

China Dailya-Gencies

(China Daily 12/28/2016 page14)