Briefly

CBIRC: Trade, FDI will protect yuan

An official of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission said on Friday a continuous and long-term unilateral depreciation of the Chinese yuan against the US dollar is unlikely. China's huge trade surplus and foreign direct investment will provide stability to the renminbi exchange rate. Fluctuations in the renminbi exchange rate still remain within a reasonable range. A continuous increase in the renminbi exchange rate elasticity while the Chinese currency's exchange rate remains basically stable will be conducive to stabilizing foreign trade, increasing long-term foreign capital inflows, preventing excessive capital outflows, and giving better play to the role of the exchange rate in adjusting the balance of payments, the CBIRC official said.

PBOC conducts reverse repos

China's central bank on Friday conducted 10 billion yuan ($1.47 billion) of reverse repos to maintain liquidity in the banking system. The interest rate for the seven-day reverse repos was set at 2.1 percent, according to the People's Bank of China. The move aims to keep liquidity in the banking system reasonably stable, the central bank said. A reverse repo is a process in which the central bank purchases securities from commercial banks through bidding, with an agreement to sell them back in the future.

Shandong's foreign trade up 14.2%

East China's Shandong province posted a 14.2 percent year-on-year increase in its foreign trade in the first four months of 2022, Qingdao Customs said. The province's total import and export value exceeded 968.8 billion yuan ($144 billion) during the period. Of the total, exports grew 22.7 percent to around 572.7 billion yuan, while imports increased 3.9 percent to about 396 billion yuan. Notably, Shandong's private sector reported 19 percent year-on-year growth to over 697 billion yuan, accounting for 72 percent of its total foreign-trade volume.

Cross-border e-commerce surges

The pilot free trade zone in South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region saw its import and export of cross-border e-commerce hit 3.51 billion yuan ($520 million) in the first quarter of 2022, up 108.4 percent year-on-year. Meanwhile, the FTZ's cross-border e-commerce generated import and export value of some 10.2 billion yuan in 2021, an increase of 259 percent from the previous year, according to the regional department of commerce. The FTZ has established a major cross-border e-commerce logistics channel for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and launched 10 air routes to countries including Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia, said Diao Weihong, deputy director of the regional department of commerce.

Chery posts robust NEV sales in Jan-April

Chinese automaker Chery Holding Group Co Ltd reported strong new energy vehicle sales in the first four months of this year, said the company. Chery sold 68,587 NEVs in the January-April period, up 168.5 percent year-on-year. In April alone, NEV sales surged by 81.2 percent year-on-year to 15,533 units, according to a sales report by the company. The company saw strong demand from countries such as Brazil, Saudi Arabia and Chile. In the first four months of this year, it exported 84,993 vehicles, an increase of 12.6 percent year-on-year. From January to April, Chery's auto sales totaled 284,865 units, up 0.9 percent year-on-year.

Xinhua - China Daily