The Chinese new year has only just started, and already trade tensions are ratcheting up. This is perhaps appropriate — astrologers tell us that the year of the Tiger is often a year of instability and conflict — and I suspect things will almost certainly get worse. The timing of various domestic political events in [...]
Feb 22nd, 2010
It is a real toss-up as to which generates more bizarre comment in the international press: Beijing’s long-feared dumping of US Treasuries, or the use and value of the PBoC’s central bank reserves. The revelation last week that Chinese holdings of US Treasury obligations fell in December by $34.2 billion, to $755.4 billion, generated a [...]
Nov 1st, 2008
Local stock markets ended the week with Chinese investors once again ignoring the world markets. Rising markets abroad were met with sharp declines (albeit not without some large partial reversals in the early morning and early afternoon) in China. The SSE Composite dropped 2.0% to close near its low at 1722, more than 4% below [...]