Briefly

Couriers handle over 100b parcels

China's courier sector saw its delivery volume exceed 100 billion parcels seven days earlier than in 2021 amid a continued expansion of the courier business, according to the State Post Bureau. Due to the rapid development of various e-commerce platforms, more farm produce is being delivered throughout China, and the courier market is seeing a growth acceleration in the central and western regions of the country. The bureau said it will promote the delivery services in rural areas by establishing more delivery stations.

Services trade value up in first 10 months

China's services trade value grew 17.2 percent year-on-year in the first 10 months of 2022, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed. The total trade value stood at nearly 4.92 trillion yuan ($690.77 billion), according to the data. Services exports expanded 18.1 percent year-on-year to 2.36 trillion yuan, and services imports totaled over 2.56 trillion yuan, up 16.4 percent from a year ago. Trade in knowledge-intensive services raked in nearly 2.05 trillion yuan, up 10.3 percent year-on-year, the data showed. Knowledge-intensive services exports gained 14.3 percent to hit nearly 1.15 trillion yuan, led by categories such as intellectual property royalties and computing and information services. Travel services continued to recover during this period, as trade in the sector advanced 9.1 percent from a year earlier to 689 billion yuan.

PBOC conducts reverse repos

China's central bank on Friday conducted 2 billion yuan ($284 million) of reverse repos to maintain liquidity in the banking system. The interest rate for the seven-day reverse repos was set at 2 percent, according to the People's Bank of China. The move aims to maintain reasonable and sufficient liquidity in the banking system, 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.

RMB strengthens against greenback

The central parity rate of the Chinese currency renminbi, or the yuan, strengthened 683 pips to 7.0542 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.

Freight train service sees steady progress

The number of China-Europe freight train journeys has increased rapidly in recent years, helping stabilize global supply chains, according to the provincial government of East China's Jiangsu province. From 2016 to 2021, the number of China-Europe freight train trips increased 55 percent year-on-year, with annual freight volume rising ninefold. As of the end of October, 82 China-Europe freight train routes had been launched reaching 204 cities in 24 European countries. These routes have handled 62,000 freight train journeys, transporting 5.76 million twenty-foot equivalent units of goods. At present, five cities in Jiangsu province, including Nanjing and Lianyungang, are operating 23 routes, reaching nearly 80 cities in Europe, Central Asia and Southeast Asia. From January to November this year, the number of freight train trips between Jiangsu and Europe reached 1,800, up 12 percent year-on-year.

Xinhua - China Daily