Top story: Consumers prefer plug-in hybrid electric vehicles to BEVs

BEIJING, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) — Chinese consumers prefer plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) to blade electric vehicles (BEV), according to a report released by the country’s automobile guild and a leading global marketing research firm on Tuesday.

images (2)    About 14 percent of respondents would prefer to buy a PHEV for its longer run time and lower reliance on charging facilities, while only 8 percent prefer BEVs, despite the fact that sales of BEVs almost doubled those of PHEVs in the first half of 2015, according to a report released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) and Nielsen.

ChineseGreenCar-5-25-12  Sales of new energy vehicles in H1 more than doubled those in the first half of last year, and China is likely to become the world’s largest electric vehicle market, according to CAAM.

images (4)   The report also said short run times, long charging times and too few maintenance stations are major barriers to growth of China’s electric vehicle market and revealed that consumers expect more preferential policies for buying and using new energy cars. Enditem

 

China needs stronger agricultural production: minister

BEIJING, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) — China will increase agricultural production to ensure an adequate and secure food supply.

IMG_0040The goal was unveiled in guidelines to accelerate the transition to modern agriculture, issued last week by the State Council.

“Better production should be the primary objective for the development of modern agriculture,” Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu said Tuesday.

Production capacity should always be of prime importance, Han said, adding that modern agriculture was more efficient and environmentally friendly through the use of technology and better trained farmers.

The government is trying to build a more sustainable agricultural sector, keeping high yields while reducing the use of fertilizer and pesticides to control soil and water pollution.

New, creative approaches to industrial chains are needed, as are farm subsidies, loans and training for farmers.

China’s summer grain output reached a record high of 141 million tonnes in 2015 after 11 consecutive years of growth. Chinese people will consume 50 billion kg more food in 2020 than in 2010.

Given the growing appetite, food safety will continue to be prioritized by policymakers, the Ministry of Agriculture said. Enditem

Rise of China benefits German export : EU think-tank

BRUSSELS, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) — The emergence of China is one of the leading contributors for the superb export performance of Germany in the 2000s compared to other European countries, a recent report by the Brussels-based think tank Bruegel said.

downloadimages (1)Germany is Europe’s export superstars, with an increase of 154 percent in exports between 2000 and 2013 compared to 127 percent in Spain, 98 percent in Britain, 79 percent in France and 72 percent in Italy, according to the report.

In addition, Germany is seen as a leading role model of successful adjustment from the “sick man of Europe” in the 2000s to an economic powerhouse today, because of a quick rebound in export growth after the financial crisis in 2009.

According to the European Union (EU) trade monitors, Germany contributes one third of the total trade volume between China and Europe. In the five years after the financial crisis, German exports to China almost doubled, a stronger increase than in any other European country.

To explain Germany’s exceptional export performance relative to other European countries, the Bruegel economists found that Germany has benefited more from the opening up of China compared to other European countries.

First, China has become an important sourcing region lowering the production costs of European exporters, the report said.

According to the indicators of the sourcing pattern of European exporters, the biggest gainers from sourcing in China were Britain and Austria. UK exporters, who offshored to China, almost doubled their export market share to the world, while Austria’s exporters increased their export market share by 70 percent compared to exporters which did not offshore to China.

Germany, as the largest European importer of Chinese goods, its imports accounted for 21 percent of all the 28 members of EU.

However, for the export market share of German exporters, sourcing from China was only marginally important. The most important benefit comes from the rapid modernization of China.

The modernization of China exhibited a growing demand for German products with its comparative advantage in machinery, transport equipment and other manufactured goods, the report said.

China has favored particularly Germany’s exports, the economists said, as Germany is the world’s top exporter of cars, vehicle parts, machinery, and engine parts.

Meanwhile, German products has won a global reputation on quality. About 40 percent of German exporters offer top quality goods relative to the market average, the report said.

The most essential reason for Germany’s exceptional export performance is that German export business model builds on quality.

“The focus on quality may explain why export growth in Germany rebounded quickly after 2009 in spite of rapid rising nominal wages,” the report said.

The economists said high quality comes from the effective management. German exports business operate with a decentralized and less hierarchical organization which empowers workers at lower levels of the firm hierarchy.

“Germany is a world champion in exporting because it is a world champion in organizing,” the report noted. Enditem

Top Story: China to become world’s largest NEV market: report

BEIJING, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) — China’s new energy vehicle (NEV) market is stepping into the growth stage from the demonstration stage and will become the largest NEV market in the world, according to a report released by the country’s automobile guild and a leading global marketing research firm on Tuesday.

images (1)The report, which was released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) and Nielsen, attributes the NEV sales surge in the first half of 2015 to China’s policy supports.

It said Chinese government released and implemented more than ten NEV-related supportive policies and standards in the first six months of this year and the number of NEV demonstrative cities increased to 89.

However, only 53.9 percent respondents participated in a survey know about the NEV subsidy policies, and only Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen have higher proportion rates.

The report also said short run times, long charging times and too few maintenance stations are major barriers to China’s NEV industry development.

NEV sales in China in July surged 3.3-fold year on year to total 16,884 units, according to a CAAM press release on Tuesday. In the first half of 2015, NEV sales jumped 2.4-fold year on year. In a breakdown, the sales of pure electric cars and plug-in hybrid power cars hiked 2.9-fold and 1.9-fold year on year, respectively. Enditem

 

IMF welcomes China’s move to improve forex formation system

WASHINGTON, Aug. 11 (Greenpost) — The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday welcomed China’s move to improve its foreign exchange formation system and said a more market-oriented exchange rate would facilitate the Special Drawing Right (SDR) operation if RMB was included in the basket.

POL080415A-A   “The new mechanism for determining the central parity of the RMB announced by the People’s Bank of China (PBC) appears a welcome step as it should allow market forces to have a greater role in determining the exchange rate,” an IMF spokesperson said in a statement on Tuesday.

The spokesperson said that greater exchange rate flexibility is important for China as it strives to give market forces a decisive role in the economy and is rapidly integrating into global financial markets. The IMF also said China has the ability to achieve an effectively floating exchange rate system within two or three years.

In regard to the IMF’s ongoing review on whether RMB will be included in the SDR basket or not, the spokesperson said China’s move has no direct implications for the criteria used in determining the composition of the basket.

But the spokesperson added that a more market-oriented exchange rate would facilitate SDR operation in case the RMB were included in the basket.

The People’s Bank of China on Tuesday announced the decision to improve its central parity system to better reflect market development in the exchange rate between the Chinese yuan against the U.S. dollar. Enditem

Source  Xinhua

Switzerland begins public consultations on joining China-led AIIB

GENEVA, Aug. 12 (Greenpost) — Switzerland’s Federal Council launched on Wednesday public consultations to cement the country’s membership with China’s Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a financial institution seeking to foster sustainable development in Asia.

images This follows the June signing of the Articles of Agreement by Swiss Federal Councillor Johann Schneider-Ammann in Beijing.

Switzerland is one of 57 prospective founding members, and has demonstrated great interest from the onset as it was amongst the first European countries to enter the AIIB’s founding process.

According to the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), the confederation’s stake in the bank’s 100 billion U.S. dollars capital stock will be a total of 706,4 million U.S. dollars, to be paid in five annual instalments.

Switzerland’s voting power (0.8745 percent) will yield more clout than its financial input through the country’s basic and founding member votes.

SECO also indicated that the confederation will continue to actively take part in the bank’s foundation while vying for a seat on the AIIB’s Board of Directors.

Both Switzerland’s development policy and its foreign economic policy are in tune with AIIB plans to finance infrastructure projects in Asia by using its own resources and through public funds and private investment.

Particular emphasis will be placed on the areas of transport, energy and water supply, ports, the environment, urban development and logistics, information technologies and telecommunication, as well as rural and agricultural development.

SECO mentioned that Switzerland’s participation will also enhance economic relations with both China and Asia, with new opportunities expected to arise for Swiss businesses in the region.

With the deadline shortened by three weeks to accelerate the launching of the ratification process, the consultations are expected to run until Sept. 2. Enditem

Source Xinhua

Gothenburg wins the Logistics Municipality of the Year 2015

By Xuefei Chen Axelsson

Stockholm, Aug. 12(Greenpost)–Gothernburg, the second largest city in Sweden, has won the “Logistics Municipality of the Year” award for 2015.

Magnus JÄDERBERG, City of Gothenburg

Photo from http://smartset-project.eu/news/gothenburg-swedish-logistics-municipality-2015

The presentation was made at Logistik & Transport, the trade fair held at the Swedish Exhibition & Congress Centre in Gothenburg, according to a report from http://smartset-project.eu/news/gothenburg-swedish-logistics-municipality-2015. Four cities – Gothenburg, Malmo, Eskilstuna and Stockholm – made up the finalists and the prize was awarded by the trade journal, Intelligent Logistik.

One of the reasons why Gothenburg was awarded the prize was the scale of its innovative City Delivery (Stadsleveransen) concept, along with associated benefits to the local community and economy. City Delivery is a ground-breaking development found in only a few cities in Europe. It involves the operation of small, electric-powered vehicles in Gothenburg’s narrow, city-centre streets to make deliveries in a coordinated system of goods distribution.

The reasons for Gothenburg’s win

The city of Gothenburg has been working with the issue of goods transport for a long time in different forums.  A particular strength of the projects and processes here lies in the  extensive local transport and logistics networks and the way different groups of stakeholders work together. One example is Gothenburg’s freight network, where stakeholders from local government, business and academia collaborate to develop logistics in the city. The network was established in 2006, and remains one of the few of its kind in Europe.

The city has two full-time logistics specialists at  Gothenburg Urban Transport Administration.  They act as project leaders and participate in working groups and  various other  projects, which cover everything from city planning to operational solutions. In addition to these full-time employees, three senior consultants have been employed by Urban Transport Administration on different assignments, making the equivalent of an additional one and a half full-time posts.

Smart deliveries and urban development

The concept of Smart Deliveries was introduced in 2014. It is based on the long-term continuous development of  innovative, sustainable solutions for last-mile distribution. The cornerstones are shared loading, and the use of clean and energy-efficient vehicles.  The major operator is currently City Delivery, which co-ordinates the loading and final delivery of goods to businesses in the city centre. City Delivery is the product of a long collaborative relationship between carriers, property owners, shops and other stakeholders in the city centre. The main partner in this joint venture is Innerstaden Göteborg AB. In 2014, City Delivery made over 400 deliveries a day, and currently the business uses two electric-driven vehicles and two delivery bikes. But further development is under way,  both in extending the catchment area and  in increasing the number of parties involved.

Two other components of the Smart Deliveries package are Feskeleveransen (Fish deliveries)  and Lindholmsleveransen (the Lindholmen connection). They will be described more fully at a later stage.

Infrastructure

The whole network of streets in the heart of the city has changed  – from traditional streets with pavements, traffic lanes and street parking, to pedestrian areas and streets where traffic speeds are limited to walking pace. This work was carried out over a number of years and was completed in 2014.

These developments have helped create a more pleasant and attractive urban environment, greatly facilitated goods distribution and significantly reduced congestion, as  conventional loading zones are no longer required. New regulations governing, for example, pedestrian areas and  parking times,  have been crucial in the establishment of City Delivery.

Strategy

A new traffic strategy for the city of Gothenburg was adopted in 2014. One of its three main sections  were about creating functional, sustainable and effective solutions for the large amount of freight flowing into and out of the Gothenburg region and included the questions of  the location of freight terminals etc. A shared loading system and the use of clean vehicles are both important components in the creation of an attractive city environment and a sustainable urban transport system.

 

See www.scbr.se too.

– See more at: http://smartset-project.eu/news/gothenburg-swedish-logistics-municipality-2015#sthash.CLTllQ80.dpuf

Will China’s Renminbi RMB meet IMF criteria?

Interview: China’s financial reform plans sufficient to support RMB’s inclusion into SDR

WASHINGTON, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) — Experts are cautiously optimistic that China’s plans for further financial reforms would be sufficient to help its currency renminbi (RMB) meet the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) criteria for joining its benchmark currency basket later this year.

“I don’t think China is going to do anything radically this year, especially after the stock market correction. But I think China’s own plans for reforms are probably sufficient to include the RMB in SDR (special drawing rights) this year,” David Dollar, senior fellow with the Brookings Institution and former official of the World Bank and the U.S. Treasury Department, told Xinhua in an interview.

Last week, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde also expressed confidence in China’s financial reforms, saying the recent market turmoil in China wouldn’t derail the IMF’s discussion on whether to include the RMB in its SDR basket.

“We are very comforted by that determination (of Chinese authorities) to deliver on the reforms, which will be conducive, one day, when the times come, once all the signals are checked positively, to the renminbi being included in the special drawing rights basket,” she said.

Earlier this year, Lagarde said the RMB’s inclusion in the SDR basket was not “a matter of if, but when”, and the IMF would work on this with Chinese authorities.

As part of the review process, the Executive Directors of the IMF held an informal meeting last week to discuss a staff report that laid out the initial considerations for reviewing the RMB’s SDR qualifications.

The report, released Tuesday and paved the way for a final decision on the SDR review later this year, hailed China’s progress on the internationalization of the RMB since the last review of the SDR basket in 2010.

“Other currencies have not experienced substantial changes in their relative prominence, underscoring that the rise of the RMB is the most significant development in international currency use since the last review,” the report said. “This notion is also supported by other contextual information such as the rising global network of RMB swap lines and the rapid growth in RMB payments from offshore clearing centers to the Mainland.”

The international use of the RMB is vital for the IMF to decide whether the RMB is a “freely usable” currency, an important criterion for admission into the SDR. At the last IMF review in 2010, the RMB met the export criterion, but was assessed as not meeting the “freely usable” criterion.

“If the RMB were determined to be a freely usable currency, it would play a more central role in the Fund’s financial operations going forward, and it would qualify for inclusion in the SDR basket,” the report said.

Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of China, said in April that China will carry out a series of reforms to further increase the capital account convertibility of RMB, and make the currency more “freely usable”.

Some experts believed that the RMB now meets the requirement of being “freely usable”.

“Since the introduction of a series of domestic reforms aimed at increasing the renminbi’s use in international payments, the currency has become the fifth most used for that purpose, accounting for over 2 percent of such transactions,” Harold James, professor of History and International Affairs at Princeton University, wrote in an article published on the Project Syndicate website, one of the world’s leading op-ed websites.

“That may not seem like a large share, but it is less than one percentage point below that of the Japanese yen,” James said, adding that the IMF should include the RMB and perhaps other emerging-market currencies in its SDR basket, which currently contains only four currencies, namely the U.S. dollar, the euro, the British pound and the Japanese yen.

The IMF staff report didn’t give any indications as to whether the RMB would be put in the SDR basket later this year, but recommended extending the current SDR basket mandate by nine months until September 2016.

The proposed extension, which will be decided by the IMF’s Executive Board later this month, will not “in any way prejudge the timing of conclusion or outcome of the review,” a senior IMF official said in a conference call with reporters on Tuesday, nothing that these two things were not related.

“This was mainly in response to feedback from SDR users” because it’s not easy for them to rebalance their reserve holdings on Jan. 1, 2016, he said, adding that SDR users also need more time to rebalance their positions if a new currency is added to the basket.

The IMF’s Executive Board still plans to formally discuss the RMB’s SDR review toward the end of the year, the official said.

“We still think it is highly likely that RMB will be included — though for technical reasons, the actual date of inclusion may be extended to Sept. 30, 2016, to give reserve managers time to adjust,” Wang Tao, chief China economist at UBS, said in a research note.

While the UK, German and several other European countries have expressed support for adding the RMB into SDR basket this year, the United States, which holds the largest voting share of the IMF, remains cautious.

“The U.S. would like to see more financial reforms in China. Some of these are very basic, like reporting reserves according to IMF standards…I think the U.S. and China should be able to agree on that,” Dollar said, adding that China’s plans for financial reforms “may very well be satisfactory” to the IMF, the U.S. and other shareholders.

“I’m pretty sure the U.S. doesn’t want to be isolated on this. I think the U.S. would work closely with European allies,” Dollar said. “I’m cautiously optimistic we would get good outcome on this.” Enditem

China to make law to get tax from property

IN-DEPTH

China Focus: Property tax legislation moving forward, though slowly

BEIJING, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) — China’s long discussed and often stagnated property tax plan has once again come under the public spotlight following its inclusion in the national legislation plan this week.

The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s legislature, included a property tax law in its legislation plan, signalling lawmakers’ determination to push ahead with the reform, although progress has been extremely slow.

“Conditions to enact these laws are ripe,” said the Standing Committee website. “The 12th NPC plans to review them within its tenure [which ends in early 2018].”

Prof. Shi Zhengwen of fiscal and financial law at the China University of Political Science and Law expects the law to be passed by the end of 2017.

But the passing of the law does not necessarily mean it will be put into effect right afterwards, analysts said, citing the timing and specific clauses in the law as possible obstacles for its implementation.

The coverage, tax rates and possible exemptions for houses under a certain size are among the most debated topics that need a serious balancing of interests, insiders involved in the legislation said.

China’s current housing tax mechanism mainly taxes development and sales of a property, without taxing home ownership or the market value of homes.

The low cost of holding property has led to speculation as investors tend to purchase multiple houses and hold them off the market in hopes of further appreciation, which has fuelled price rises in major cities already wrestling with tight supply.

As part of efforts to cooling the property market amid growing public complaints over runaway housing prices, China introduced a trial property tax in cities like Chongqing and Shanghai in 2010.

The Chongqing tax tryout focused on high-end housing while the Shanghai method mainly targeted ownership of multiple houses.

Due to limited rates ranging from 0.5 to 1.2 percent, however, the taxes were seen as too low to be effective in keeping local housing prices in check.

Rumors later spread that more cities, including Wuhan, Hangzhou and Xiangtan, were “technically ready” to join the pilots, but none made any concrete moves, which some analysts have blamed on a lack of legal backing.

In a first sign of the central leadership’s determination, a reform plan approved by the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Communist Party of China Central Committee in 2013 made clear that the legislation of taxes in the property sector would be accelerated.

As the country’s growth started to face increasing downward pressure in recent years and the property market began to cool, discussions on property tax have gradually died down as more attention has shifted to supporting growth.

Balancing the relationship between the property tax’s possible impact on the market and economic development will be central to the reform agenda, said Zhang Bin, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

“In the longer term, the aim of the property tax legislation is to increase taxes on home ownership to improve the price mechanism,” he said.

Zhang Dawei, chief analyst at Centaline Property, pointed out another factor that may hamper the implementation of the tax — property registration.

Given that property registration has yet to be finished, there will be a very low possibility of the property tax being implemented in the short term, which in turn will have limited impact on the market, Zhang said.

With a clear reform roadmap and transparent policies, the public could be more prepared for possible policy changes to help stabilize market expectations to avoid wild swings in prices, analysts said.

China’s real estate market took a downturn in 2014 due to weak demand and a surplus of unsold homes. The cooling has continued into 2015, with both sales and prices falling and investment slowing.

The persistent weakness in the sector, combined with shrinking exports due to uneven global economic recovery, dragged China’s growth to 7 percent in the first half of the year, prompting the government to introduce an array of policies such as easing mortgage rules and removing purchase restrictions to activate the market.

On the back of the policies, new home prices have continued to rise for the third consecutive month in July, with average prices in a sample of 100 cities rising 0.54 percent month on month to 10,685 yuan (1,747 U.S. dollars) per square meter, according to a survey conducted by the China Index Academy, an independent research institute. Enditem

NRDC expects northeastern economy to grow faster in H2

BEIJING, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) — China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) on Thursday said the economy of northeastern China provinces has bottomed out and is expected to turn better in the third and fourth quarters of this year.

Provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang, China’s Rust Belt in the northeast, ranked the slowest nationwide in terms of the second-quarter economic growth.

The NDRC said it would quicken making instructions for deepening reform in state-owned enterprises in northeast China while introducing a series of reform schemes adapted to local characteristics.

As the traditional pillar industries of northeast China have stagnated, the NDRC plans to use fund incentives to promote emerging industries such as robot, gas turbine, satellite, biological medicine and green food to take root in the northeast.

The NDRC also urges Dalian, a relatively booming coastal city of Liaoning province, to accelerate constructing the Jinpu New District, and Shenyang, the capital city of Liaoning, to develop Sino-Germany High-end Equipment Manufacturing Industrial Park.

Liaoning province had a GDP growth of 2.6 percent during the second quarter of 2015, slower than any other Chinese province or autonomous region.

(Edited by Zhang Yuenan, zhangyuenan@xinhua.org)

 

China pledges to help developing countries with much-needed infrastructure

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) — Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here that China will provide developing countries including the Southeast Asian nations with infrastructure “most in need.”

At a press conference after the China-ASEAN (10+1) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on Wednesday, Wang said the priorities of the cooperation between ASEAN and China in the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road should be the infrastructure construction and international cooperation in production capacity.

The minister said China and the ASEAN countries, at different stages of industrialization, could realize complementarity. The cooperation between them bore its unique characteristic, he said, which meant China will take the needs of target countries into consideration before it provide the infrastructure and industrial production capacities “most in need.”

“That is certainly of high quality and sustainability,” he said.

During the process of cooperation, China had no intention of competing with other countries, the Chinese minister said. However, it seemed that certain country did not really want to work on cooperation, but actually intended to “grapple with” China.

All countries should give full play to their respective advantages and focus on their own affairs, Wang said. Enditem

 

China approves nine cities to carry out domestic trade, circulation reform

BEIJING, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) — The State Council, China’s cabinet, has approved nine cities, including Shanghai, Nanjing, Zhengzhou, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Xiamen, Qingdao, Huangshi and Yiwu, to carry out domestic trade and circulation reform for better regulation, innovation, infrastructure construction and administration.

Under the pilot scheme of carrying out such reform in domestic trade system, the governments of the nine cities will accelerate transforming government functions and streamlining administration, while breaking regional blockades and industry monopolies, to ensure the market plays the decisive role in allocating resources.

The scheme plans to spend one year collecting duplicable experiences and preparing for building a nationwide free trade market.

(Edited by Zhang Yuenan, zhangyuenan@xinhua.org)

China’s second-hand house price kept increasing for 3 month running, report

BEIJING, Aug. 6 (Greenpost) — China’s second-hand house price index reached 1,086.3 in July, an increase of 2.1 percentage points from the previous month, posting rebound for three month running, according to a report by Economic Information Daily quoting report by property consulting service and information provider CRIC on Thursday.

The growth was led by first-tier cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, according to CRIC.

Of the 60 cities monitored by CRIC, altogether 38 cities posted month-on-month house price rise in July, and 22 cities saw month-on-month decline, with Xi’an and Ningbo falling most.

Li Chunyan, analyst of CRIC, holds that house price of first-tier cities is unlikely to post significant rise, and price of house market will remain stable in August. (Edited by Hou Yujie, houyj@xinhua.org)

China to set up basic management platform of real estate registration information, report

   BEIJING, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) — China’s Ministry of Land and Resources (MLR) issued a notice on setting up a basic management platform of real estate registration information, China Securities Journal (CSJ) reported on Thursday.

According to the notice, the basic management platform of real estate registration information will be in pilot operation online in the second half of this year, and the real estate registration information data base will be set up basically in 2016. In 2017, a nationwide real estate registration information platform will be established.

 

China Exim Bank sees strong demand for 2-tranch bond sales Thu

   BEIJING, Aug. 6 (Greenpost) –The Export-Import Bank of China sold 2-tranche financial bonds on Thursday, with the yields for the 1-year product and the 10-year product at 2.5815 percent and 3.9169 percent, respectively.

Statistics from China Government Securities Depository Trust & Clearing Co. showed that yields on the 1-year and 10-year fixed interest rate policy bank bonds traded on the domestic interbank market stood at 2.7363 percent and 3.9725 percent respectively.

The two batches of bonds drew strong demand from institutional investors with the bid-to-cover ratio reaching 7.38 and 5.33, respectively.

Analysts attributed the rosy auction result to the country’s weak economy and the relaxed liquidity condition in the financial market. (Edited by Yang Yifan, yangyifan@xinhua.org)

Source Xinhua