China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said on recently that between January and June 2008, the country sold 3.61 million passenger motor vehicles, a growth of 17.07 percent over the same period a year previous. The growth rate, however, was 5.19 percentage points lower than the 22.26 percent level recorded in the same period last year […]
Category: Economics
Read on trends about ‘Economics’ at { design@tive } information design
China has begun to restrict visas for foreign visitors. The Washington Post presents several perspectives on why this is happening, including Olympic security concerns and a growing sense of nationalism among Chinese. On paper, the visa rules for China have always been strict. In addition to frustrated potential visitors to China, the economy is also experiencing difficulties due to the new visa restrictions. The Wall Street Journal reports on the vacant hotels in Beijing, built for Olympic visitors and other tourists who are now hampered from entering China….
The scale of China’s software industry has reached 583.4 billion yuan, ranking fourth in the world, as learned at the recently held 12th China International Software Expo in Beijing. The software industry, the core of the information industry, advanced manufacturing and modern services, has now become a basic, pilot and strategic industry for China…
Urban Chinese saw their disposable income expand 3.4 percent in the first quarter of 2008, the lowest increase for the same period since 1997. The per-capita disposable income of the country’s urban households rose 11.5 percent year on year in the first three months to 4,386 yuan (about US$ 626.6). However, after counting in inflation, the growth slowed to 3.4 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced on recently…
More citizens of China’s eastern metropolis of Shanghai were not satisfied with their salaries and may postpone buying houses or cars, a survey shows. The income index for the second quarter of this year set a record low of 114.8 points, 3.8 points lower than that of the first quarter and 7.5 points lower than the last quarter of 2007, according to the survey on consumption confidence conducted by Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (SUFE)…
OCED Observer is running a good piece this month assessing the state of innovation in China: ‘Part of China’s innovation stodginess reflects history: the Chinese R&D system has evolved from a Soviet-style mission approach, slowing the transition to a more market-led approach. Geography is also a factor, with many pockets of excellence living separate lives–more an archipelago than an interlinked whole. A glance at the map also reveals that the hot spots of innovation lie along the east coast. In bleak contrast stands the number of R&D facilities in the western and central provinces. Again, history comes in to play, since many of these sites were chosen during the Cold War because their remoteness from busy economic hubs was considered as a “third frontier” in defending Chinese intelligence…’
China has promulgated its own intellectual property strategy, which is aimed at promoting innovation and the use of new technologies by China’s industries. It’s hoped that via the implementation of the strategy, all innovations will be respected and more wealth will be created…
China’s consumer price index(CPI) rose 8.5 percent in April, mainly driven by uncurbed food costs, the National Bureau of Statistics(NBS) said recently. The figure, compared with 8.3 percent in March and a nearly 12-year-high of 8.7 percent in February, was broadly in line with most forecasts.
The NBS attributed the figure to a low base of comparison: the CPI rose just 3 percent in April 2007. Another factor was the rapid increase in world grain and commodity prices…
Beijing’s consumer price index (CPI) rose 6.5% in April, according to the latest statistics from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics and the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics Beijing Survey Organization. Food prices rose 21.6%; while non-food prices rose 0.3%. Consumer goods prices rose 8.7% and that of service rose 0.8%. Food prices increased by 21.6% as compared with the same month last year, among which grain prices increased 9.0%; oil prices increased 29.2%; meat and its products prices increased 46.8%; egg prices increased 6.3%; aquatic products increased 19.9%; and vegetables prices increased 11.4%…
China’s software industry income amounted to 193.55 billion yuan from January to April, up 31.2 percent year-on-year, and 11.4 percentage points higher than the electronic information industry, according to information released by the Ministry of Industry and Information. The revenue from software products accounted for 70.39 billion yuan (10.2 billion US dollars): it is still the main component of the software industry. Revenue from software technology services saw the fastest growth and amounted to 35.63 billion yuan (5.1 billion US dollars), growing by 48.2 percent year-on-year. Revenue from system integration increased by 23.8 percent to 46.07 billion yuan (6.7 billion US dollars); and the growth rate of revenues from embedded systems and IC design are relatively low…