China Daily Oil Summary: Air Travel Struggling to Reach 2019 Levels

Asia-Pacific air travel is struggling to recover fully to pre-pandemic levels because of rising fuel prices and high inflation according to industry body IATA which places the region's air travel recovery at 69% of 2019 levels for the year through September.

• "Industry recovery has been slowed by inflation, the tight job market, supply chain constraints and fuel prices, which are still higher than in 2019," according to an Asia-Pacific airline executive.
• The same executive said the industry is still waiting on China recovery to return to full force kick off a fresh wave of growth.
• Looking at global air passenger capacity, the main lag in international capacity compared to 2019 remains in Asia, with South Asia 21.2% below 2019 levels, while North Asia (which includes China) is 27.2% below 2019 levels.
• Overall passenger seats – international and domestic routes combined - in North Asia still lag 2019 levels by 4.1%.
• DATA: New loans were the third lowest this year at CNY738.4 billion, outperforming the CNY660 billion expectation but lower than September's CNY2.31 trillion, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) data showed. Total social financing marked the smallest increase in recent three months to rise by CNY1.85 trillion, more than halved from CNY4.12 trillion in September and slightly missing the market consensus of CNY1.9 trillion. M2 money supply was unchanged from the previous 10.3% y/y, remaining at the lowest level since March 2022, compared to the 10.3% estimate.
• Economists in China remain positive on the economy, with the Yicai Chief Economist Survey reading 50.84 in November, down from 50.89 last month, as participants expect strong upcoming data and for the economy to achieve this year's GDP growth target of 5%.
• YUAN: The currency weakened to 7.2928 against the dollar from 7.2906 on Friday.