I was in Shanghai for the past two days and so wasn’t able to write anything on my blog, although it doesn’t seem like a whole lot has happened recently to add to our understanding of the Chinese economy. The stock market continues to behave poorly, with the SSE Composite dropping 2.6% on Tuesday and …
Read More…Archive for August, 2008
Making sense of what comes after the Olympics
The Olympics are finally over, and with a spectacular ending that reportedly had Jimmy Page performing “Whole Lotta Love”. I didn’t see the performance – I was in a park just south of the Olympic Stadium with three friends, trying to get a glimpse of the fireworks – but I am definitely curious to know …
Read More…Real estate loan growth may be slowing
Today’s unexpected withdrawal by hurdler Liu Xiang from participation in the Olympics – because of a leg injury – has been a real emotional blow to many of my friends and students in China. Condolences to all. It is a disappointment to see such a great athlete unable to defend his title in his own …
Read More…The last few days of Olympic fever
The stock market had its best day in a long time, with the SSE Composite rising 7.6% on the day to close at 2522. Most of the run-up came in the morning, and several financial sector firms, which were the best performers, had to stop trading when they hit their 10% price-change limit, suggesting that …
Read More…Anniversary of Nixon’s price controls
Today is an anniversary of sorts. Thirty-seven years ago, in 1971, President Nixon stunned the US by announcing the imposition of extensive wage and price controls in an effort to reverse rising inflation in the US. In retrospect it is pretty clear that the price and wage controls were unlikely to reverse several years of …
Read More…Anticipation about the opening ceremony doesn’t impress the stock market
The Olympic opening ceremony Friday was truly a spectacular event and left a lot of people here, at least among my students, with a sense of nearly euphoric pride. I watched the ceremony on television at D22, my music club near Peking University, and during the ceremony I received dozens of phone messages from current …
Read More…New regulations on money flows
For a couple of weeks now there have been rumors and reports about new foreign exchange regulations being put into place, partly to limit hot money inflows and partly, once these begin to reverse, to make it more difficult for money to leave. Yesterday SAFE announced a new set of measures. Today’s South China Morning …
Read More…RMB 10 trillion in the informal banks
The stock markets had a bad day, with the SSE Composite dropping 2.1% to close at 2741.7. Part of the reason for the decline was concern that a roughly $1 billion upcoming share sale by China South Locomotive and Rolling Stock Corp. will draw a lot of liquidity from the market (stock sales tend to …
Read More…Export rebates, relaxed lending caps, and a new department at the PBoC
The stock market started out badly today, dropping 1.8% during the first two hours of the trading day, before a press conference by Hu Jintao, stressing the need for growth, brought back optimism over government-engineered policies to boost growth. From its low the market surged 2.8%, to close at 2802, up 0.9% for the day. …
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