bluhostus.co.cc

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s premier called for additional efforts to support growth on Sunday, signaling Beijing’s willingness to take action after a recent series of economic indicators suggested that the world’s second-biggest economy will slow further in the second quarter.

“We should continue to implement a proactive fiscal policy and a prudent monetary policy while giving more priority to maintaining growth,” Premier Wen Jiabao said in comments reported by state news agency Xinhua.

Chinese exports rose by 4.9 percent in April, barely half the rate which economists had forecast, while imports fell far short of expectations. In addition foreign direct investment slid lower in the first four months of 2012.

The numbers, released last week, pointed to slower growth for China in the face of external headwinds that pushed economic growth in the first quarter down to 8.1 percent, the slowest pace in almost three years.

The latest Reuters poll showed that private sector economists expect China’s growth to ease to 7.9 percent in Q2 from an 8.1 percent annual rate in Q1. They forecast full-year growth of 8.2 percent.

Wen said the central government will continue to strengthen and improve macro control efforts, carry out fine-tuning, boost domestic consumption and stabilize external demand, said the Xinhua report.

Earlier this month China’s central bank cut the amount of cash that banks must hold as reserves, freeing an estimated 400 billion yuan ($63 billion) for lending to add to the roughly 800 billion injected in two previous 0.5 percentage-point cuts in required reserves since the government tilted its policy stance towards growth in October.

But few analysts expect Beijing to unveil stimulus measures that come anywhere near the mammoth 4 trillion yuan spending plan launched during the 2008-2009 financial crisis.

So far China has taken some more modest steps, including earmarking 26.5 billion yuan in subsidies last week for energy-saving home appliances as part of steps to boost domestic consumption. The government will also dole out 6 billion yuan to promote the use of cars with engines smaller than 1.6 liters.

Wen didn’t specify what steps the government might take to stabilize external demand.

Investors worry that continued turmoil in the eurozone will further dent Chinese exports.

Not all analysts see cause for alarm. Last week, a senior statistics official said leading indicators, including new orders and input purchasing sub-indexes in the official purchasing manager index, are already showing signs of an uptick in the economy.

(Reporting by Sabrina Mao and Don Durfee; Editing by Greg Mahlich)

LONDON (Reuters) – The euro zone can protect its currency if its stronger countries provide more support for the weaker to help them deal with their problems, British finance minister George Osborne said in a newspaper on Sunday.

The future of Europe‘s 17-country single currency bloc is under threat from a political stalemate in Greece, which could lead to its departure from the monetary union at unknown costs to the financial system and global economic stability.

“Euro zone countries must either stand behind their currency or face up to the prospect of Greek exit, with all the risks that could involve,” Osborne wrote in The Sunday Times.

“How can they stand behind the euro? First, those countries with high deficits and low competitiveness need to carry on confronting their problems head on. But in the absence of flexible exchange rates, the economic and political barriers to dealing with those problems will only get worse without more support from the core of the euro zone.”

He added that the euro zone must follow “the remorseless logic” of monetary union towards greater fiscal integration and “burden-sharing”, with Eurobonds one possible option.

“Finally, the whole of Europe needs to become more competitive and productive. That means reforming welfare systems, investing in infrastructure, more job-friendly employment laws, better education and lower business taxes,” he wrote.

Greek voters this month toppled a government that had agreed to painfully austere terms of an international bailout plan, and uncertainty hangs over the next election set for June 17.

Osborne’s comments follow a remark made by British Prime Minister David Cameron that a government source said was a veiled suggestion that the European Central Bank should follow the example of the Bank of England by embarking on an asset purchase program to lift economic growth in the euro zone.

“Clearly, just as Britain benefits from a strong government with a strong deficit reduction plan and strong banks but also an independent monetary policy giving us low interest rates, helping to push demand in the economy, so the euro zone I believe needs that approach as well,” Cameron said at a summit of the Group of Eight major economies on Saturday.

British officials are deeply worried about the impact that a break-up of the euro and a further deterioration of the euro zone crisis could have on Britain’s recession-hit economy. The country is outside the euro zone but about 40 percent of its exports go to the single currency bloc.

The turmoil in the euro zone appears to be making Britain’s membership of the larger European Union increasingly unpopular among voters, undermining support for Cameron’s Conservative Party which leads the governing coalition.

In an opinion poll by ComRes for the Sunday Mirror and Independent on Sunday newspapers, 46 percent of Britons said they would vote for Britain to leave the EU in a referendum, compared to the 30 percent who disagreed.

And 26 percent of Conservative voters would “seriously consider” switching their support to the UK Independence Party (UKIP), Britain’s biggest anti-EU party, if an election were held now.

However, Conservative Justice Minister Kenneth Clarke said Britain’s exit from the EU would be “disastrous”.

“I can’t think of anything more irrelevant to the present situation actually, nor personally can I think of anything more disastrous than the British leaving the European Union and deciding now is the moment to take up splendid isolation,” he told Sky News television on Sunday.

(Reporting by Olesya Dmitracova; Editing by Greg Mahlich)

BEIJING (Reuters) – Thirty of China’s biggest state-owned businesses have signed contracts worth about 350 billion yuan ($55.3 billion) with the southwestern municipality Chongqing, Chinese media reported on Sunday, in a sign of Beijing’s determination to bolster confidence in the city formerly run by ousted leader Bo Xilai.

Since the fall of the once high-flying Chinese official, media reports and some investors have questioned whether Chongqing’s debt-laden economy is also headed for trouble.

A senior government official led a delegation of state-owned enterprise heads, including those from Sinopec Group, China National Petroleum Corp. and China Mobile 0941.HK, to the city last week, The Economic Observer reported on Sunday.

“The central enterprises should firmly grasp new development opportunities in Chongqing,” the newspaper quoted Wang Yong, the head of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, as saying. “Central enterprises” are the businesses directly managed by Beijing.

The companies signed agreements for a total of 72 projects, the paper reported. The article provided no details on the individual investments.

Bo’s removal as Chongqing’s Communist Party boss in March, amid police suspicions that his wife had murdered an expatriate British businessman last year, has triggered a party review of his leadership, including Chongqing’s financial affairs.

That, plus fears of a purge of Bo’s business allies, have created concerns over the debt accumulated by the vast municipality of some 30 million people.

Chongqing, China’s biggest municipality, has approached Hong Kong investors with the aim of selling distressed property assets and bolstering its finances, Reuters reported earlier this month.

China Development Bank, a policy bank that lends at Beijing’s behest, signed a memorandum with Chongqing in May to provide more capital for roads and social housing.

(Reporting by Sabrina Mao and Don Durfee; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)