MNI China Daily Summary: Monday, November 18
POLICY: China's October youth unemployment rate excluding students was 17.1%, a still high level as the economy continues to recover, data issued by National Bureau of Statistics Monday showed.
POLICY: Beijing municipality’s total retail sales growth between January to October decreased by 1.3% y/y, narrowing from the 1.6% decline between January to September, data from the Beijing municipal government showed on Monday.
LIQUIDITY: The People's Bank of China (PBOC) conducted CNY172.6 billion via 7-day reverse repos, with the rate unchanged at 1.50%. The operation led to a net injection of CNY38.9 billion after offsetting the maturity of CNY133.7 billion today, according to Wind Information.
RATES: The seven-day weighted average interbank repo rate for depository institutions (DR007) rose to 1.7245% from 1.7230%, Wind Information showed. The overnight repo average increased to 1.4804% from 1.4772%.
YUAN: The currency weakened to 7.2441 against the dollar from 7.2310 on Friday. The PBOC set the dollar-yuan central parity rate lower at 7.1907, compared with 7.1992 set on Friday. The fixing was estimated at 7.2298 by Bloomberg survey today.
BONDS: The yield on 10-year China Government Bonds was last at 2.0850%, up from the previous close of 2.0700%, according to chinamoney.com.cn.
STOCKS: The Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.21% to 3,323.85 while the CSI300 index decreased 0.46% to 3,950.38. The Hang Seng Index rose 0.77% to 19,576.61.
FROM THE PRESS:
China should study the history of Japan-U.S. trade relations when considering a new trade-war with Washington, former State Administration of Foreign Exchange senior official Wang Tao has said. Japan accounted for 22.2% of US imports in 1986, 0.8 percentage points more than Beijing’s highest level in 2017, before dropping to 4.7% in 2023, Wang noted. Authorities need to respond to external shocks by accelerating incremental policies and deepening opening up. In recent years, China’s market share of global exports has increased despite declining in the U.S., showing containment of indirect exports through third party countries was difficult in practice, Wang said.
China’s manufacturing sector share of steel demand in China will rise from last year’s 52%, driven by growth in new energy products and high-end equipment manufacturing, according to Jiang Wei, vice president and secretary-general of the China Iron and Steel Association. Speaking at the Lange Steel Network annual meeting, Jiang said current equipment renewal and consumer goods trade-in schemes will increase consumption by about 8 million tonnes this year, but a declining property sector will reduce demand overall, Jiang added.
A new Chinese built port in Peru will reduce shipping times between Asia and South America to 25 days from 35 days and cut 20% off logistics costs, Yicai news outlet reported. The construction of deep water facilities at the Chancay Port allows goods to by-pass Mexico and Panama, greatly improving efficiency, the news outlet noted. Niu Haibin, director at the Institute of Foreign Policy of the Shanghai Institute for International Studies highlighted Peru was a member of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the new port would enhance economic integration in South America.