Briefly

SAIC Motor H1 overseas sales strong

China's major carmaker SAIC Motor sold 381,000 vehicles overseas in the first half of this year, up 48 percent year-on-year. Despite COVID-19, the overseas sales of the Shanghai-based carmaker went up more than 59 percent year-on-year to 84,000 units in June. Its target is to sell 800,000 vehicles overseas this year. From January to June, SAIC Motor sold more than 2.23 million vehicles, close to the sales in the same period in 2021. The carmaker said it will continue cooperating with upstream and downstream partners in the industrial chain to speed up its production and sales in the second half.

Reverse repos add 3b yuan to system

The People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, on Friday conducted 3 billion yuan ($447 million) of seven-day, 2.1 percent reverse repos to maintain stable liquidity in the banking system. Reverse repos worth 10 billion yuan also matured on Friday, resulting in a net withdrawal of 7 billion yuan. 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.

RMB strengthens against greenback

The central parity rate of the Chinese currency renminbi, or the yuan, strengthened 45 pips to 6.7098 against the US dollar on Friday, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System. In China's spot foreign exchange market, the yuan is allowed to rise or fall by 2 percent from the central parity rate each trading day. The central parity rate of the yuan against the US dollar is based on a weighted average of prices offered by market makers before the opening of the interbank market each business day.

Steps to boost consumption

Beijing has rolled out a spate of measures in an effort to boost consumption recovery in the Chinese capital, according to the local economic planner. The measures, jointly launched by eight government departments, include the issuance of restaurant coupons worth 100 million yuan ($14.9 million) both online and offline starting this month to promote the recovery of the catering market. The coupons will be funded by the government and platform enterprises, said Guo Wenjie, deputy director of the Beijing municipal commerce bureau, on Thursday.

Investment and trade fair opens

The 28th China Lanzhou Investment and Trade Fair kicked off on Thursday in Lanzhou, capital of Northwest China's Gansu province. The five-day event that features business negotiations and forums aims to boost economic and trade cooperation among countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative. First held in 1993, the fair has become an important platform for the opening up of Northwest China and a major event for Belt and Road economic and trade cooperation.

Xinhua - China Daily