Rachel Reeves has dismissed the idea of economically disengaging from China, amid concerns the US may put pressure on the UK to limit its deals with Beijing. The chancellor, who will discuss a trade deal with the US on a trip to Washington next week, said it would be “very foolish” for Britain to have less involvement with Xi Jinping’s administration. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that US officials would attempt to use trade deals and tariff discussions to economically isolate China. Keir Starmer spoke to Donald Trump…
Tag: Global economy
Nvidia’s CEO makes surprise visit to Beijing after US restricts chip sales to China
The chief executive of the American chip maker Nvidia visited Beijing on Thursday, days after the US issued fresh restrictions on sales of the only AI chip it was still allowed to sell to China. Jensen Huang’s surprise visit was on the invitation of a trade organisation, according to a social media account affiliated with state media. The official broadcaster China Central Television said Huang met Ren Hongbin, the head of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, where he said he hopes “to continue to cooperate with…
Dysfunction and division darken the WTO’s 30-year dream of free trade
When trade ministers gathered in the Moroccan city of Marrakech 30 years ago this month to sign the agreement creating the World Trade Organization (WTO), the mood was celebratory. The Berlin Wall had come down only recently, communism had collapsed, and there was optimistic talk of how the body would prise open new markets and act as the arbiter when disputes broke out between countries. The atmosphere today is much darker than it was in April 1994. Any enthusiasm for groundbreaking trade liberalisation deals disappeared decades ago and has been…
World’s largest solar manufacturer to cut one-third of workforce
The world’s largest solar manufacturer has slashed nearly a third of its workforce after a cost-cutting drive that included telling staff to only print in black and white fell short and as a chill ripples through the renewable energy sector. China’s Longi is to cut as much as 30% of its workforce, in an acceleration of cost reductions that began late last year, Bloomberg reported. It is unclear exactly how many jobs will be lost at the company, which employed 80,000 at its peak last year, as an internal function…
The Guardian view on supply chains: not only just in time, but just in case | Editorial
In 2012, shortly before becoming China’s top leader, Xi Jinping visited the Port of Los Angeles to discuss boosting trade. What then looked like a locus of cooperation has now become another site for suspicion as Sino-American relations remain tense. Last month, the Biden administration announced $20bn of funding for port infrastructure, much of it to replace cargo cranes that have almost all been made by a state-owned Chinese firm. The US is concerned because the sophisticated pieces of equipment manage information about containers and their contents, their origins and…
China needs to do more on ‘silent crisis’ of debt, says World Bank official
China holds the key to speeding up debt relief and ending the “silent crisis” that is holding back attempts to tackle poverty in the world’s poorest countries, a senior World Bank official has said. Ayhan Kose, the Bank’s deputy chief economist, said Beijing needed to be more active in negotiations to provide financial support for those countries already in, or close to, debt distress. Kose said China’s emergence as a significant creditor country over the past 15 years meant it needed to take responsibility for making a post-pandemic debt relief…
China has seen a fourth month of falling prices, but will it act to curb deflation?
China’s economy has gone from bad to worse – and it is only February. Figures released on Thursday showed consumer prices fell by 0.8% in January compared with a year earlier, outstripping economists’ expectations and marking the biggest contraction in 15 years. Prices in China have been flat or falling nearly continuously since July. Although the country’s zero-Covid policy was abandoned more than a year ago, consumers are still cautious about spending, both on everyday goods and on property, which has traditionally been the driver of growth in China’s gross…
China consumer prices plunge at fastest rate for 15 years as deflation fears deepen
China’s consumer prices fell at their fastest pace in 15 years in January, as the world’s second-largest economy sank deeper into deflation amid weakening demand. Data released on Thursday showed that China’s consumer price index tumbled last month, falling by 0.8% compared with a year earlier. It marks the fourth consecutive month of declines, as well as the sharpest drop since September 2009, when the global economy was still grappling with aftershocks from the 2008 banking crisis. Food prices were the biggest drag on the headline inflation figure, having fallen…
Don’t count on a soft landing for the world economy – turbulence is ahead | Kenneth Rogoff
A month into 2024, the consensus forecast for the global economy remains cautiously optimistic, with most central banks and analysts projecting either a soft landing or potentially no landing at all. Even my colleague Nouriel Roubini, famous for his bearish tilt, regards the worst-case scenarios as the least likely to materialise. The CEOs and policymakers I spoke to during last month’s World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos echoed this sentiment. The fact that the global economy did not slip into recession in 2023, despite the sharp rise in interest rates,…
Chinese markets rally on report Beijing considering £222bn state rescue plan
Chinese markets have lifted following a report suggesting that Beijing policymakers are scrambling to mobilise billions of yuan from state-owned enterprises to reverse a recent share rout. The benchmark CSI 300 index, which replicates the top 300 stocks traded on the Shanghai and the Shenzhen bourses, had fallen to a five-year low, while the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index, which tracks Chinese stocks traded in Hong Kong, had dropped to its lowest in nearly two decades. However, Chinese indexes recovered slightly on Tuesday after Bloomberg reported that the authorities were…