From an editorial in South Africa’s Business Day: It is only recently that China and SA have sought to broaden their relationship. Wen’s visit, the first official one to SA by a Chinese prime minister, holds out prospects as well as challenges. It will help build ties and perhaps give impetus to, among other things, […]
Read MoreFrom Bloomberg News (link) China should use its foreign-currency reserves, the world’s largest, to buy gold and oil as a hedge to guard against the risk of a sudden drop in the U.S. dollar, said a member of the central bank’s advisory board. China has about 1 percent of its reserves in gold, compared with […]
Read MoreFrom IPS (link): China is becoming a force to reckon with on the African continent. The world’s most populous country is busy building railways and roads in Angola, Nigeria and Kenya, revving up trade volumes with South Africa and Zambia and, most of all, guzzling up the continent’s rich reserves of oil and minerals. Increasingly […]
Read MoreFrom Current History, via American Foreign Policy Council (link): The streets of Maputo, the capital of the former Portuguese colony of Mozambique, look little different from those of other sub-Saharan African cities. Open sewers overflow with rotting fruit, beggars harass pedestrians for 1,000 meticals (the equivalent of less than 10 cents), and young mothers walk […]
Read MoreFrom the Financial Times (link) The World Bank has revised upwards its estimate for Chinese growth this year to 9.5 per cent, but has warned that Beijing needs further action to rein in investment and credit growth and entrench structural change in the economy. The bank, in its quarterly report on the Chinese economy, says […]
Read MoreFrom Bloomberg News (link) Citigroup Inc., the world’s biggest financial-services company, is offering to reduce its planned investment in Guangdong Development Bank to salvage a $3 billion takeover of the Chinese lender, said two people with direct knowledge of the situation. Chinese rules prevent an overseas company from acquiring more than 19.9 percent of a […]
Read MoreFrom Guardian Unlimited (link): The theme of this year’s Dashanzi contemporary art festival is Beijing, but it might just as easily be money. Cash is used for political ends by veteran artist, Huang Rui, whose “Chairman Mao 10,000rmb” spells out Cultural Revolution slogans with banknotes. The same material is exploited by young artist Wang Sishun, […]
Read MoreFrom The Times Online (link): A CONSORTIUM led by Goldman Sachs has taken a big step into China by buying a 9% stake in Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the country’s largest lender. ICBC announced the sale yesterday, saying the Goldman team, which includes American Express and Allianz, had paid $3.8 billion for […]
Read MoreFrom the Bloomberg News (link): The yuan may decline after China unexpectedly raised benchmark interest rates yesterday to curb surging investment, stoking speculation the central bank won’t need to rely on faster currency gains to cool economic growth. China is under pressure from the U.S. and the Group of Seven nations to rely less on […]
Read MoreFrom the Financial Times (link) Bank of China, the country’s third-largest lender, will this week seek regulatory approval to raise up to US$8bn in Hong Kong, in a listing that could hand foreign investors led by Royal Bank of Scotland a paper profit of more than US$4bn. But news that the RBS consortium – which […]
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