Software isn't technology and software engineering isn't real engineering. I say this as a software engineer.
Chinese Economics Thread
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Software isn't technology and software engineering isn't real engineering. I say this as a software engineer.
Right, and next hardware won't be technology either. Biotech won't be tech, and nanotech won't be tech, and 5G won't be tech. Whatever the Chinese government bans won't be tech.
Still doesn't explain why the Chinese government lets US companies engage in monopolistic behavior in China but bans Chinese companies from doing the same.
I see you've run out of medication for you mental illness. Go fill up your prescription.
@OppositeDay and another is the splendid infrastructure especially its public transport system, unlike those from North America were you need to drive long distance to work. And this is another bright spot for EV as China power generation mix is balanced with transmission grid being modernized to handle the energy load from the Western region where many of the Green power project are situated.
A strong start for Chinese economy. Hopefully, covid couldn't derail the momentum.
(Bloomberg) -- China’s economy started the first two months of the year on a strong footing, although risks are growing as the number of local coronavirus cases surge and global energy prices spike due to Russia-Ukraine tensions.
Industrial output grew 7.5% in the two months through February, figures from the National Bureau of Statistics showed Tuesday, compared with 4.3% in December. Economists had expected 4% expansion.
Retail sales rose 6.7%, accelerating from 1.7% in December and beating a 3% increase projected by economists. Investment climbed 12.2% during the two-month period, better than the 5% estimate and last year’s 4.9% growth. The surveyed jobless rate rose to 5.5% last month.
“Overall the economy had good recovery momentum in January and February,” the NBS said in a statement. However, the “external environment still remains complex and grim, and there are many risks and challenges faced by China’s economy,” it added.
Data in the first two months are usually distorted by the Lunar New Year holidays and also complicated by the high base of comparison from last year.
China’s benchmark CSI 300 Index pared a loss of as much as 2.9% after the data, with a sub-gauge of consumer staples trimming its decline by more than half. The futures contract on 10-year government bonds dropped 0.25% as of 10:06 a.m. local time.
Property Slump
The economy has been hit hard by a slump in the property market, with official data showing ongoing weakness in the sector. Residential property sales contracted 22.1% in the first two months of the year from the same period in 2021.
The outlook for this year is rapidly worsening amid heightened geopolitical tensions and Covid lockdowns in China, making it even harder for the government to achieve its ambitious growth target of around 5.5% this year.
The People’s Bank of China surprised many by refraining from lowering a key interest rate on Tuesday ahead of the data release. The rate on the one-year medium-term lending facility was left unchanged at 2.85%. A majority of economists in a Bloomberg survey had predicted a 10-basis point cut.
Instead, the PBOC added monetary stimulus by injecting a net 100 billion yuan ($15.7 billion) of funds into the financial system.
Credit expansion slowed in February, data released Friday showed, with a key indicator of home mortgages declining for the first time in at least 15 years despite efforts to boost borrowing by cutting rates and lowering down payments. That meant lending to households had the weakest start to any year since 2016.
The virus outbreaks this month are the worst since the peak of the first wave in Wuhan, and may trigger lockdowns of a larger scale and put much of the world’s second largest economy on halt. The nation has already put major cities including Shenzhen under lockdown, ordered a shutdown of schools and suspension of inter-city bus services in Shanghai, and restricted people in Jilin province from leaving the region.
The economic cost could subtract 0.8 percentage point from the gross domestic product growth rate if the whole of China’s coastal and northeastern provinces impose similar one-week lockdowns, Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. estimates.
More liquidity to preempt the anticipated headwind from covid. An interest rate cut could be on the pipeline.
China Economy Starts Year Strongly as Covid, War Risks Loom
(Bloomberg) -- China’s economy started the first two months of the year on a strong footing, although risks are growing as the number of local coronavirus cases surge and global energy prices spike due to Russia-Ukraine tensions.
Industrial output grew 7.5% in the two months through February, figures from the National Bureau of Statistics showed Tuesday, compared with 4.3% in December. Economists had expected 4% expansion.
Retail sales rose 6.7%, accelerating from 1.7% in December and beating a 3% increase projected by economists. Investment climbed 12.2% during the two-month period, better than the 5% estimate and last year’s 4.9% growth. The surveyed jobless rate rose to 5.5% last month.
“Overall the economy had good recovery momentum in January and February,” the NBS said in a statement. However, the “external environment still remains complex and grim, and there are many risks and challenges faced by China’s economy,” it added.
Data in the first two months are usually distorted by the Lunar New Year holidays and also complicated by the high base of comparison from last year.
China’s benchmark CSI 300 Index pared a loss of as much as 2.9% after the data, with a sub-gauge of consumer staples trimming its decline by more than half. The futures contract on 10-year government bonds dropped 0.25% as of 10:06 a.m. local time.
Property Slump
The economy has been hit hard by a slump in the property market, with official data showing ongoing weakness in the sector. Residential property sales contracted 22.1% in the first two months of the year from the same period in 2021.
The outlook for this year is rapidly worsening amid heightened geopolitical tensions and Covid lockdowns in China, making it even harder for the government to achieve its ambitious growth target of around 5.5% this year.
The People’s Bank of China surprised many by refraining from lowering a key interest rate on Tuesday ahead of the data release. The rate on the one-year medium-term lending facility was left unchanged at 2.85%. A majority of economists in a Bloomberg survey had predicted a 10-basis point cut.
Instead, the PBOC added monetary stimulus by injecting a net 100 billion yuan ($15.7 billion) of funds into the financial system.
Credit expansion slowed in February, data released Friday showed, with a key indicator of home mortgages declining for the first time in at least 15 years despite efforts to boost borrowing by cutting rates and lowering down payments. That meant lending to households had the weakest start to any year since 2016.
The virus outbreaks this month are the worst since the peak of the first wave in Wuhan, and may trigger lockdowns of a larger scale and put much of the world’s second largest economy on halt. The nation has already put major cities including Shenzhen under lockdown, ordered a shutdown of schools and suspension of inter-city bus services in Shanghai, and restricted people in Jilin province from leaving the region.
The economic cost could subtract 0.8 percentage point from the gross domestic product growth rate if the whole of China’s coastal and northeastern provinces impose similar one-week lockdowns, Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. estimates.
More liquidity to preempt the anticipated headwind from covid. An interest rate cut could be on the pipeline.
Bohai Bay continues to outshine other bases
By ZHENG XIN | China Daily | Updated: 2022-03-15 08:57
China's largest crude production base, located in Bohai Bay, has produced more than 500 million metric tons of oil and gas equivalent so far with annual production gradually rising each year, said its operator China National Offshore Oil Corp, the country's top offshore oil and gas producer.
Oil and gas production in Bohai oilfield exceeded 30 million tons last year, which is half of the country's crude oil output increase in 2021, it said.
"Five hundred million tons of oil is approximately equivalent to the basic demand of the country for one year and it has also significantly contributed to the country's domestic energy security and economic development," said Wang Yu, production manager of the company's Tianjin branch office.
Li Ziyue, an analyst with BloombergNEF, said CNOOC's steady oil and gas production ramp-up is critical to China's energy security.
"This is even more important amid current geopolitical tensions, which have launched commodity prices to new highs," Li said.
"Oil and gas supplies, especially, are under extra pressure, while China's offshore oil and gas output has great upside potential."
The State-owned producer contributed more than half of China's total oil and gas output addition last year and it is also trying to carve out a role in the country's growing clean energy sector, seeking to use its engineering prowess to become a major player in offshore wind power projects, she added.
According to the China Offshore Energy Report drafted by the CNOOC Energy Economics Institute earlier this year, China is one of the most active areas for offshore exploration and ranks fourth in newly launched offshore oil and gas production projects.
The institute expects China's offshore oil and gas output will continue to rise this year.
Bohai oilfield started construction in 1965 and is the birthplace of China's modern offshore oil industry.
After over half a century of service, it has come up with more than 50 productive oil and gas fields, over 180 production facilities with accumulative proved petroleum geological reserves of more than 4.4 billion tons and natural gas geological reserves of some 500 billion cubic meters.
It has become the country's most profitable and largest-in-scale offshore oil and gas field, said CNOOC.
China benefits from being an island of stability in the raging clusterfuck that is the west and Eurasia. Capital is fleeing Russia and Wall Street and into Lujiazui.