Briefly

Nation top market for German carmakers

China remained the most important customer of Germany's automotive industry in 2021, the German Federal Statistical Office－Destatis－said. Germany's exports of passenger cars to China increased by 14 percent year-on-year to 16.7 billion euros ($18.7 billion) last year, according to Destatis. German car exports to the United States recovered to 15.9 billion euros in 2021 while exports to Britain, the industry's third-largest export country, fell by 17 percent to 9.4 billion euros. After being affected by "severe COVID-19 restrictions" in 2020, German car exports increased slightly to 117.6 billion euros last year but were still 8.2 percent below pre-crisis levels in 2019, according to Destatis. The German Association of the Automotive Industry expects the global passenger car market to grow by 4 percent in 2022. The United States and China would grow by 2 percent, while the European market was forecasted to grow by 5 percent due to catch-up effects.

Insurance complaints drop in Q4 of 2021

Consumer complaints against China's insurance companies dropped 7.39 percent quarter-on-quarter in the fourth quarter of last year, with 37,646 cases received by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission and its local bureaus. The number of cases involving property insurance companies declined 14.53 percent quarter-on-quarter to 14,247 in the period, while cases related to life insurers totaled 23,399, a quarterly decrease of 2.42 percent, said the CBIRC. There were 9,082 auto insurance-related complaints in the fourth quarter, accounting for 63.75 percent of all complaints against property insurance companies. Of all the complaints against life insurers, the numbers of cases related to life insurance and disease insurance accounted for 41.31 percent and 22.83 percent, respectively, said the CBIRC.

Anhui's pilot FTZ foreign trade robust

The pilot free trade zone in East China's Anhui province generated foreign trade of over 154 billion yuan ($24.3 billion) in 2021, accounting for 22.3 percent of the province's total. Some 13,000 new enterprises had been established and 795 projects signed in Anhui's pilot FTZ in 2021, with a combined contractual investment of 319.5 billion yuan, according to the administration office of the China (Anhui) Pilot Free Trade Zone. Established in September 2020 with three subzones in the cities of Hefei, Wuhu and Bengbu, the Anhui pilot FTZ has developed rapidly to become a high-level opening-up and development platform.

Xinhua