China production and retail rise

[pampango]

Source: BBC

The latest economic data from China suggests that industrial production grew year on year at a level faster than expected. The government's huge economic stimulus package is likely to have helped a lot.

The data indicates that activity in factories and workshops increased by 16.1% in October compared to a year ago. Importantly, they see evidence in this latest data, that Chinese consumers are starting to make more of a contribution to economic growth here.

China needs consumers to spend more to spur domestic demand for the goods its factories produce, as it is unlikely to be able to rely on US consumers in the years ahead in the same way that it could before the financial crisis.

China has been trying to boost domestic demand for the goods its factories make, as exports have been declining for 12 months now.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8353909.stm

---

As China's exports continue to fall and the economy still grows, more of their production is being consumed domestically rather than exported. Many here have wanted China to base its economic growth more on internal demand rather than on exports and that seems to be happening.

If Europe and North America rebound economically, all governments will have to act to prevent the huge trade imbalances that existed before. (Of course, if they don't rebound, China's exports will continue to decline and their growth will have to be domestically-based if it is to continue.) As Chinese consumers get used to the benefits of an economy that is more focused on their needs/wants, perhaps they will be less willing to accept a return to an export-only policy that leaves little for their own consumers.

[Ghost Dog]

1. China begins space center construction in southern island of Hainan

WENCHANG, Hainan, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- China on Monday began construction of its new space launch center in Wenchang City, on the northeast coast of the tropical island province of Hainan, which is scheduled to be completed by 2013.

The Hainan Space Satellite Launch Center, the fourth and the lowest latitude one in China, only 19 degrees north of the equator, would allow China to take part in more international commercial space launches, said Wang Weichang, director of the Hainan Space Center Project Headquarters.

Photo Gallery>>>

He said at the cornerstone laying ceremony of the center that the new launch site will be mainly used for launching synchronous satellites, heavy satellites, large space stations, and deep space probe satellites.

/more... http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-09/14/content_12048773.htm

Good intelligent work.

[pampango]

4. An article about the Chinese space program is a good balance to the "Chinese crap" discussions

we have here. They obviously make a lot of highly technical electronic and aerospace products, in addition to the cheap (price and quality) stuff that we buy from them.

[Ghost Dog]

5. Case of real "intelligent design" (and even faster than the Japanese example):

China second only to US in research-Thomson Reuters

Monday November 02, 2009 11:55:21 PM GMT
Reuters News
CHINA-RESEARCH/

WASHINGTON, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Chinese researchers have more than doubled their output of scientific papers and now are second only to the United States in terms of volume, according to a report from Thomson Reuters released on Monday.

The research is heavily focused on materials and technology and shows China is poised to dominate several areas of industry, the report finds.

"China's comparative growth is striking, far outstripping that of the rest of the world," reads the report, available at http://researchanalytics.thomsonreuters.com/grr/.

"And the curve seems to be showing only marginal signs of slowing, still heading to overtake the USA itself within the next decade."

Chinese researchers published 20,000 research papers in 1998. This ballooned to nearly 112,000 in 2008, the report found, with China passing Japan, Britain and Germany in terms of annual output.

During the same time U.S. researchers increased output from 265,000 to 340,000 publications a year, a gain of around 30 percent.

Chinese research is concentrated in the physical sciences and technology, especially materials science, chemistry and physics.

"China's grip on innovative materials is likely to have far-reaching effects. It is difficult to see developments in industrial sectors that draw on these technologies that will not directly or indirectly depend on the knowledge coming out of China's research," the report reads.

"If China's research growth remains this rapid and substantial, European and North American institutions will want to be part of it," Jonathan Adams, director of research evaluation at Thomson Reuters, added in a statement.

The report, based on 10,500 journals monitored by Thomson Reuters, parent company of Reuters, notes that China has more than 1,700 standard institutions of higher education.

"Since the Chinese economic reform started in 1978, China has emerged from a poor developing country to become the second-largest economy in the world after the United States of America," the report reads.

"Already, more than half of the nation's technologies, including atomic energy, space science, high-energy physics, biology, computer science, and information technology, have reached or are close to a recognizable international level of achievement."

Other high-growth areas for China, according to the report, include agricultural sciences, immunology, microbiology, and molecular biology and genetics.

The United States is the biggest international collaborator with China, with 39,000 Chinese papers suggesting collaboration with U.S. researchers, or 8.9 percent of China's total. Japanese collaborations came next with 3 percent.

/. http://www.forexyard.com/en/reuters_inner.tpl?action=2009-11-02T215523Z_01_N02461423_RTRIDST_0_CHINA-RESEARCH

[Ghost Dog]

2. China releases October economic statistics

www.chinaview.cn 2009-11-11 10:29:14

/see... http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-11/11/content_12431281.htm

[Mudoria]

3. I wish our stimulus bill had been modeled similar to the Chinese one..