bladerunner
Banned Idiot
Emulate China and Patience while taking care of the basics first.
Chinese Economics Thread
- Thread starter Norfolk
- Start date
Emulate China and Patience while taking care of the basics first.
I am. Its all a matter of interests which will collide. But the larger picture is very encouraging except for the poor old colonialists which are now hit by their own economic absurdities while having to pay more for their imports from Africa and China and a few other places.
Hendrik_2000
Lieutenant General
Well a lot of China basher will be unhappy their prediction of the "sky will fall doesn't materialize". Inflation is moderating, Real estate sky high prices is coming down
BEIJING—A decline in China's property prices is picking up steam, suggesting Beijing has had some success in taming housing costs, while also raising concerns that prices could drop too far and fast when the rest of the world is relying on the country as an engine of growth.
House prices were flat or falling in a majority of China's top cities, weekly data released Monday show. The weekly data, though volatile, add to evidence that housing prices are headed downward after years of consistent increases.
Beijing has been trying to calm property prices for about two years in an effort to make housing more affordable and douse a possible catalyst for social unrest. Steps by regulators include tightening lending and putting tougher restrictions on buying homes.
An unanswered question is whether China can gently let the air out of its real-estate bubble or whether the bubble will burst, undermining economic growth. With the European Union and U.S. struggling to kick-start their own economies, global growth depends increasingly on the health of the Chinese economy, the world's second-largest.
Beijing's top officials say they plan to stay the course. "I will especially stress that there won't be the slightest wavering in China's property-tightening measures—our target is for prices to return to reasonable levels," Premier Wen Jiabao said in a speech on Sunday in Russia.
Real estate is a major driver of growth in China and a big source of demand for steel and cement, as well as of domestic demand for manufactured goods such as furniture. As much as 25% of the Chinese economy may be tied up in real estate and related industries, according to analysts. Ordinary Chinese frequently invest in real estate, so a sharp downturn could batter their savings.
Prices in the major southern cities of Shanghai and Guangzhou are down from their levels at the start of the year, according to data released by the China Real Estate Index System.
Prices fell by 0.23% nationally in October compared with September, faster than the 0.03% drop posted in September from August, according to data from the same index.
Asia Today: Olympus admits to covering up huge investment losses for decades after weeks of inquiry. And in China, property prices are declining. Will the real-estate bubble burst? WSJ's Mariko Sanchanta and Alex Frangos discuss.
In Shanghai, China's business capital, average prices for new residential real estate in many parts of the city are under asking prices for existing homes, according to Shanghai Urban Real Estate Surveyors-Appraisal Co., a consulting firm.
Steeper declines may lie ahead. "The correction is not over; it has just started," J.P. Morgan said in a note Friday. "However, the likelihood of a nationwide collapse is very small…. Bursting the bubble is clearly not part of the policy objective."
J.P. Morgan analysts forecast that prices nationally could fall 5% to 10% over the next 12 to 18 months, and as much as 20% in some major cities.
Real-estate developers are having greater problems finding financing to complete projects or start new ones. Trust-investment vehicles—a key part of China's shadow lending system—have become a major source of funding for developers, after bank lending all but dried up this year.
New financing provided by trust companies to property developers fell 17% in the third quarter from the second, after regulators stepped in to curtail trust lending to the sector, according to data issued Friday.
China's trust companies provided 113.9 billion yuan ($18 billion) of funding to property developers in the three months ended September, according to data on the China Trustee Association website, down from 136.7 billion yuan in April through June. In the first quarter, they provided 71.1 billion yuan in funding.
Trust companies don't take on the risk of an investment themselves, but funnel funds from companies and wealthy individuals into a wide range of investments, including private equity, loans, direct stakes in property development, and even bonds and stocks.
For the Chinese public, complaints still focus largely on housing affordability. But the price drops have also prompted some outcry. In late October, more than 40 people gathered at the showroom of developer Greenland Group in Shanghai amid heavy security to express frustration that properties had been discounted after they had made their purchases.
A real-estate agent with the company said discounts for 28% were on offer.
"I bought an apartment here in September and now I've lost more than 400,000 yuan ($63,000)," said a businesswoman in her 40s. "That is my hard-earned money, how can the developer be so ruthless?"
Greenland Group said Monday that the protests have died down, but didn't provide other details.
Property developers have long held back from cutting prices on new developments, hoping the government would blink first and relax restrictions on purchases. Instead, authorities have continued to increase pressure.
The southern city of Zhuhai last week implemented a cap on the prices developers can charge for new housing, a temporary move that emphasizes the pressures officials face to cool the housing market.
On Monday, Hangzhou-based property developer Greentown China Holdings Ltd. said it is considering disposing of some of its property projects to boost its cash flow, rather than cut prices.
"Selling the projects is a better option than offering large discounts, which would tarnish our image with our end-customers," Chief Financial Officer Simon Fung said. He said disposing of projects outright is also faster than selling individual units at discounted prices.
China's banking regulator asked trust companies in September to report their exposure to Greentown, amid concerns about how some developers have funded their projects. Greentown executives say the company remains strong.
—Bob Davis and Tom Orlik contributed to this article.
China's inflation rate eases for third straight month
Chinese inflation eases in August
Rising prices hurt Asia's growth
China's inflation rate has slowed for a third straight month in October, as the government continues to try to cool economic growth.
Consumer prices rose 5.5% in October compared with the same month a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said.
That is down from 6.1% in September, and a three-year high of 6.5% in July.
The government has identified inflation as one of the main threats to the country's economic stability.
It started implementing policies earlier this year aimed at slowing economic growth of more than 9% to what it sees as more sustainable levels.
At the same time, it wants to ease pricing pressures that have pushed the cost of food higher and made life more expensive for consumers.
October's inflation figure is in line with analyst's expectations and they said that they now expect inflation will continue to ease in coming months.
The latest release confirms that "headline inflation is on a downward trend", said Zhang Zhiwei, an economist at Nomura in Hong Kong. He added that Nomura now forecast the rate of inflation would fall below 5% in November.
Mr Zhiwei said that as inflationary pressures ease the government may be able to loosen monetary policy by cutting interest rates and reducing the amount of money banks need to keep in reserve.
More on This Story
Related Stories
BEIJING—A decline in China's property prices is picking up steam, suggesting Beijing has had some success in taming housing costs, while also raising concerns that prices could drop too far and fast when the rest of the world is relying on the country as an engine of growth.
House prices were flat or falling in a majority of China's top cities, weekly data released Monday show. The weekly data, though volatile, add to evidence that housing prices are headed downward after years of consistent increases.
Beijing has been trying to calm property prices for about two years in an effort to make housing more affordable and douse a possible catalyst for social unrest. Steps by regulators include tightening lending and putting tougher restrictions on buying homes.
An unanswered question is whether China can gently let the air out of its real-estate bubble or whether the bubble will burst, undermining economic growth. With the European Union and U.S. struggling to kick-start their own economies, global growth depends increasingly on the health of the Chinese economy, the world's second-largest.
Beijing's top officials say they plan to stay the course. "I will especially stress that there won't be the slightest wavering in China's property-tightening measures—our target is for prices to return to reasonable levels," Premier Wen Jiabao said in a speech on Sunday in Russia.
Real estate is a major driver of growth in China and a big source of demand for steel and cement, as well as of domestic demand for manufactured goods such as furniture. As much as 25% of the Chinese economy may be tied up in real estate and related industries, according to analysts. Ordinary Chinese frequently invest in real estate, so a sharp downturn could batter their savings.
Prices in the major southern cities of Shanghai and Guangzhou are down from their levels at the start of the year, according to data released by the China Real Estate Index System.
Prices fell by 0.23% nationally in October compared with September, faster than the 0.03% drop posted in September from August, according to data from the same index.
Asia Today: Olympus admits to covering up huge investment losses for decades after weeks of inquiry. And in China, property prices are declining. Will the real-estate bubble burst? WSJ's Mariko Sanchanta and Alex Frangos discuss.
In Shanghai, China's business capital, average prices for new residential real estate in many parts of the city are under asking prices for existing homes, according to Shanghai Urban Real Estate Surveyors-Appraisal Co., a consulting firm.
Steeper declines may lie ahead. "The correction is not over; it has just started," J.P. Morgan said in a note Friday. "However, the likelihood of a nationwide collapse is very small…. Bursting the bubble is clearly not part of the policy objective."
J.P. Morgan analysts forecast that prices nationally could fall 5% to 10% over the next 12 to 18 months, and as much as 20% in some major cities.
Real-estate developers are having greater problems finding financing to complete projects or start new ones. Trust-investment vehicles—a key part of China's shadow lending system—have become a major source of funding for developers, after bank lending all but dried up this year.
New financing provided by trust companies to property developers fell 17% in the third quarter from the second, after regulators stepped in to curtail trust lending to the sector, according to data issued Friday.
China's trust companies provided 113.9 billion yuan ($18 billion) of funding to property developers in the three months ended September, according to data on the China Trustee Association website, down from 136.7 billion yuan in April through June. In the first quarter, they provided 71.1 billion yuan in funding.
Trust companies don't take on the risk of an investment themselves, but funnel funds from companies and wealthy individuals into a wide range of investments, including private equity, loans, direct stakes in property development, and even bonds and stocks.
For the Chinese public, complaints still focus largely on housing affordability. But the price drops have also prompted some outcry. In late October, more than 40 people gathered at the showroom of developer Greenland Group in Shanghai amid heavy security to express frustration that properties had been discounted after they had made their purchases.
A real-estate agent with the company said discounts for 28% were on offer.
"I bought an apartment here in September and now I've lost more than 400,000 yuan ($63,000)," said a businesswoman in her 40s. "That is my hard-earned money, how can the developer be so ruthless?"
Greenland Group said Monday that the protests have died down, but didn't provide other details.
Property developers have long held back from cutting prices on new developments, hoping the government would blink first and relax restrictions on purchases. Instead, authorities have continued to increase pressure.
The southern city of Zhuhai last week implemented a cap on the prices developers can charge for new housing, a temporary move that emphasizes the pressures officials face to cool the housing market.
On Monday, Hangzhou-based property developer Greentown China Holdings Ltd. said it is considering disposing of some of its property projects to boost its cash flow, rather than cut prices.
"Selling the projects is a better option than offering large discounts, which would tarnish our image with our end-customers," Chief Financial Officer Simon Fung said. He said disposing of projects outright is also faster than selling individual units at discounted prices.
China's banking regulator asked trust companies in September to report their exposure to Greentown, amid concerns about how some developers have funded their projects. Greentown executives say the company remains strong.
—Bob Davis and Tom Orlik contributed to this article.
China's inflation rate eases for third straight month
Chinese inflation eases in August
Rising prices hurt Asia's growth
China's inflation rate has slowed for a third straight month in October, as the government continues to try to cool economic growth.
Consumer prices rose 5.5% in October compared with the same month a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said.
That is down from 6.1% in September, and a three-year high of 6.5% in July.
The government has identified inflation as one of the main threats to the country's economic stability.
It started implementing policies earlier this year aimed at slowing economic growth of more than 9% to what it sees as more sustainable levels.
At the same time, it wants to ease pricing pressures that have pushed the cost of food higher and made life more expensive for consumers.
October's inflation figure is in line with analyst's expectations and they said that they now expect inflation will continue to ease in coming months.
The latest release confirms that "headline inflation is on a downward trend", said Zhang Zhiwei, an economist at Nomura in Hong Kong. He added that Nomura now forecast the rate of inflation would fall below 5% in November.
Mr Zhiwei said that as inflationary pressures ease the government may be able to loosen monetary policy by cutting interest rates and reducing the amount of money banks need to keep in reserve.
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Equation
Lieutenant General
But gamblers...err I mean investors needs them so they can veer their money into "guaranteed" winnings.
bladerunner
Banned Idiot
Not exactly economic in nature but I found this article on branding quite interesting.
BEIJING — After a hard day’s labor, your average upscale Beijinger likes nothing more than to shuck his dress shoes for a pair of Enduring and Persevering, rev up his Precious Horse and head to the pub for a tall, frosty glass of Happiness Power.
Or, if he’s a teetotaler, a bottle of Tasty Fun.
To Westerners, that’s Nike, BMW, Heineken and Coca-Cola, respectively. And those who wish to snicker should feel free: the companies behind these names are laughing too — all the way to the bank.
More than many nations, China is a place where names are imbued with deep significance. Western companies looking to bring their products to China face a problem not unlike that of Chinese parents naming a baby boy: little Gang (“strong”) may be regarded quite differently than little Yun (“cloud”). Given that China’s market for consumer goods is growing by better than 13 percent annually — and luxury-goods sales by 25 percent — an off-key name could have serious financial consequences.
And so the art of picking a brand name that resonates with Chinese consumers is no longer an art. It has become a sort of science, with consultants, computer programs and linguistic analyses to ensure that what tickles a Mandarin ear does not grate on a Cantonese one.
Art “is only a very, very tiny piece of it,” said Vladimir Djurovic, president of the Labbrand Consulting Company in Shanghai, which has made a business of finding names for Western companies entering the Chinese market.
Maybe. But there is a lot of artistry in the best of the West.
The paradigm probably is the Chinese name for Coca-Cola, Kekoukele, which not only sounds like Coke’s English name, but conveys its essence of taste and fun in a way that the original name could not hope to match.
There are many others. Consider Tide detergent, Taizi, whose Chinese characters literally mean “gets rid of dirt.” (Characters are important: the same sound written differently could mean “too purple.”)
There is also Reebok, or Rui bu, which means “quick steps.” And Colgate — Gao lu jie — which translates into “revealing superior cleanliness.” And Lay’s snack foods — Le shi — whose name means “happy things.” Nike (Nai ke) and BMW (Bao Ma, echoing the first two sounds of its English and German names) also have worn well on Chinese ears.
Still, finding a good name involves more than coming up with clever homonyms to the original English.
“Do you want to translate your name, or come up with a Chinese brand?” said Monica Lee, the managing director of the Brand Union, a Beijing consultancy. “If you go for phonetic sounds, everyone knows where you are from — you’re immediately identified as a foreign brand.”
For some products, having a foreign-sounding name lends a cachet that a true Chinese name would lack. Many upscale brands like Cadillac (Ka di la ke), or Hilton (Xi er dun), employ phonetic translations that mean nothing in Chinese. Rolls-Royce (Laosi-Laisi) includes two Chinese characters for “labor” and “plants” that more or less have become standard usage in foreign names — all to achieve a distinct foreign look and sound.
But on the other hand, a genuine Chinese name can say things about a product that a mere collection of homonyms never could. Take Citibank, Hua qi yinhang, which literally means “star-spangled banner bank,” or Marriott, Wan hao, or “10,000 wealthy elites.” Or Pentium, Ben teng, which means “galloping.” Asked to introduce Marvel comics to China, the Labbrand consultants came up not long ago with “Man wei” — roughly phonetic, foreign-sounding and eminently suited to superheroes with the meaning “comic power.”
To introduce Clear dandruff shampoo to young Chinese, who are already inundated with foreign brands, Ms. Lee’s firm decided to focus on the shampoo’s image. “It’s not about where this product comes from; it’s about the benefit it can bring to you,” she said. The ultimate choice, Qing Yang, combines the Chinese words for “clear” and for “flying,” or “scattering to the wind.”
It’s very light, healthy and happy,” Ms. Lee said. “Think of hair in the air.”
“Clear” is one of a select number of Chinese words that carry unusually positive connotations, and that find their way into many brands’ names. Others include “le” and “xi,” or happy; “li,” meaning “strength” or “power”; “ma” or horse; and “fu,” translated as “lucky” or “auspicious.”
Thus the name for Heineken beer, Xi li, and the many automobile brands — Mercedes, BMW, even Kia — that include a horse in their Chinese names (one Kia sedan is named Qian li ma, or “thousand-kilometer horse,” an allusion to strength).
Precisely why some Chinese words are so freighted with emotion is anyone’s guess. But Denise Sabet, the vice general manager at Labbrand, suggests that the reasons include cultural differences and the Chinese reliance on characters for words, rather than a phonetic alphabet. Each character is a collection of drawings that can carry meanings all their own.
Then again, some meanings are best avoided.
Microsoft had to think twice about bringing its Bing search engine here because in Chinese, the most common definitions of the character pronounced “bing” are “disease,” “defect” and “virus” — rather inauspicious for a computer product. The revised name, Bi ying, roughly means “responds without fail.”
Peugeot (Biao zhi) sounds enough like the Chinese slang for “prostitute” (biaozi) that in southern China, where the pronunciations are especially close, the brand has inspired dirty jokes. And in China, the popular Mr. Muscle line of cleaners has been renamed Mr. Powerful, (Weimeng Xiansheng). The product’s maker said in an e-mail that it had forgotten why.
But it could be that when it is spoken, the name Mr. Muscle has a second, less appealing meaning: Mr. Chicken Meat.
BEIJING — After a hard day’s labor, your average upscale Beijinger likes nothing more than to shuck his dress shoes for a pair of Enduring and Persevering, rev up his Precious Horse and head to the pub for a tall, frosty glass of Happiness Power.
Or, if he’s a teetotaler, a bottle of Tasty Fun.
To Westerners, that’s Nike, BMW, Heineken and Coca-Cola, respectively. And those who wish to snicker should feel free: the companies behind these names are laughing too — all the way to the bank.
More than many nations, China is a place where names are imbued with deep significance. Western companies looking to bring their products to China face a problem not unlike that of Chinese parents naming a baby boy: little Gang (“strong”) may be regarded quite differently than little Yun (“cloud”). Given that China’s market for consumer goods is growing by better than 13 percent annually — and luxury-goods sales by 25 percent — an off-key name could have serious financial consequences.
And so the art of picking a brand name that resonates with Chinese consumers is no longer an art. It has become a sort of science, with consultants, computer programs and linguistic analyses to ensure that what tickles a Mandarin ear does not grate on a Cantonese one.
Art “is only a very, very tiny piece of it,” said Vladimir Djurovic, president of the Labbrand Consulting Company in Shanghai, which has made a business of finding names for Western companies entering the Chinese market.
Maybe. But there is a lot of artistry in the best of the West.
The paradigm probably is the Chinese name for Coca-Cola, Kekoukele, which not only sounds like Coke’s English name, but conveys its essence of taste and fun in a way that the original name could not hope to match.
There are many others. Consider Tide detergent, Taizi, whose Chinese characters literally mean “gets rid of dirt.” (Characters are important: the same sound written differently could mean “too purple.”)
There is also Reebok, or Rui bu, which means “quick steps.” And Colgate — Gao lu jie — which translates into “revealing superior cleanliness.” And Lay’s snack foods — Le shi — whose name means “happy things.” Nike (Nai ke) and BMW (Bao Ma, echoing the first two sounds of its English and German names) also have worn well on Chinese ears.
Still, finding a good name involves more than coming up with clever homonyms to the original English.
“Do you want to translate your name, or come up with a Chinese brand?” said Monica Lee, the managing director of the Brand Union, a Beijing consultancy. “If you go for phonetic sounds, everyone knows where you are from — you’re immediately identified as a foreign brand.”
For some products, having a foreign-sounding name lends a cachet that a true Chinese name would lack. Many upscale brands like Cadillac (Ka di la ke), or Hilton (Xi er dun), employ phonetic translations that mean nothing in Chinese. Rolls-Royce (Laosi-Laisi) includes two Chinese characters for “labor” and “plants” that more or less have become standard usage in foreign names — all to achieve a distinct foreign look and sound.
But on the other hand, a genuine Chinese name can say things about a product that a mere collection of homonyms never could. Take Citibank, Hua qi yinhang, which literally means “star-spangled banner bank,” or Marriott, Wan hao, or “10,000 wealthy elites.” Or Pentium, Ben teng, which means “galloping.” Asked to introduce Marvel comics to China, the Labbrand consultants came up not long ago with “Man wei” — roughly phonetic, foreign-sounding and eminently suited to superheroes with the meaning “comic power.”
To introduce Clear dandruff shampoo to young Chinese, who are already inundated with foreign brands, Ms. Lee’s firm decided to focus on the shampoo’s image. “It’s not about where this product comes from; it’s about the benefit it can bring to you,” she said. The ultimate choice, Qing Yang, combines the Chinese words for “clear” and for “flying,” or “scattering to the wind.”
It’s very light, healthy and happy,” Ms. Lee said. “Think of hair in the air.”
“Clear” is one of a select number of Chinese words that carry unusually positive connotations, and that find their way into many brands’ names. Others include “le” and “xi,” or happy; “li,” meaning “strength” or “power”; “ma” or horse; and “fu,” translated as “lucky” or “auspicious.”
Thus the name for Heineken beer, Xi li, and the many automobile brands — Mercedes, BMW, even Kia — that include a horse in their Chinese names (one Kia sedan is named Qian li ma, or “thousand-kilometer horse,” an allusion to strength).
Precisely why some Chinese words are so freighted with emotion is anyone’s guess. But Denise Sabet, the vice general manager at Labbrand, suggests that the reasons include cultural differences and the Chinese reliance on characters for words, rather than a phonetic alphabet. Each character is a collection of drawings that can carry meanings all their own.
Then again, some meanings are best avoided.
Microsoft had to think twice about bringing its Bing search engine here because in Chinese, the most common definitions of the character pronounced “bing” are “disease,” “defect” and “virus” — rather inauspicious for a computer product. The revised name, Bi ying, roughly means “responds without fail.”
Peugeot (Biao zhi) sounds enough like the Chinese slang for “prostitute” (biaozi) that in southern China, where the pronunciations are especially close, the brand has inspired dirty jokes. And in China, the popular Mr. Muscle line of cleaners has been renamed Mr. Powerful, (Weimeng Xiansheng). The product’s maker said in an e-mail that it had forgotten why.
But it could be that when it is spoken, the name Mr. Muscle has a second, less appealing meaning: Mr. Chicken Meat.
Obama uses very strong language about china´s trade, IPR, and currency pratices:
what do you think? so far the obama administration hasnt endorsed strong anti-china legislation that is pending right now in congress. But could it change next year, a year of election?
what do you think? so far the obama administration hasnt endorsed strong anti-china legislation that is pending right now in congress. But could it change next year, a year of election?