Index of optimism of leading Chinese economists calculated by Yicai.com declined to 51.65 points in April from 52.3 points in March, but remained above 50 points, which indicates that the positive mood remains.
Experts polled by the newspaper forecast an average increase in GDP in China by 3.99% in the first quarter of this year and by 5.47% for the year as a whole.
The average yuan exchange rate, according to their estimates, will be 6.65-6.69 yuan/$1 this year. It stands at 6.8742 yuan/$1 as of 1 p.m. Moscow time Thursday.
Economic indicators show that China’s economic recovery accelerated in March, but the labor market is still weak and more than a third of industrial companies remain unprofitable, said Zhou Xue, chief economist for China at Mizuho Securities.
China’s foreign trade situation is challenging, and some industries need more support to boost trade with other countries in the region, including ASEAN nations, according to a Yicai editorial.
Chinese exports in the first two months of 2023 were down 6.8 percent compared with the same period a year earlier, while imports fell 10.2 percent.
However, exports increased after February, judging by the flow of cargo traffic to the country’s major ports, the article noted.
Official data on China’s foreign trade dynamics for March will be released on April 13.
China needs to stabilize its exports to maintain its position as the world’s largest producer as well as to help developed countries cope with high inflation, Yicai writes. Beijing should build an institutional system to promote trade and investment instead of using ad hoc measures, the article notes.
Chinese state-owned companies are leading the wave of spinning off operations into independent entities and then placing their shares on the open market, Securities Daily wrote Monday.
According to the paper, 73 companies listed on mainland China stock exchanges are moving forward with deals to spin off businesses and then list them. More than half of the 73 companies are state-owned.
Separating operations and listing new companies on the market is a good way to unlock the value of each unit and expand financing channels, said Hu Conghui, an associate professor at the business school of Beijing Normal University, cited by Securities Daily.
Such deals have a positive effect on the market value of state-owned companies and allow the government to raise capital, said Wu Wanying, an analyst at Tianyi Digital Economy.
Spin-offs are most common in semiconductor equipment, new energy sources and other technology segments.
