Passenger car sales rise to record in Nov.
THE country s passenger car sales jumped to a record in November, climbing 27 percent from a year ago, China Daily reported, quoting the China Passenger Car Association.
Sales exceeded 1.28 million units last month, up 10.5 percent from October, the newspaper said yesterday, quoting the association. Sales would continue to gain in December, Rao Da, secretary general of the association said, according to the newspaper.
Government stimulus policies including tax rebates and vehicle trade-in subsidies have spurred car sales in China. The country overtook the United States to become the world s biggest market for new automobiles last year. The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the official trade body for the auto industry, is scheduled to release November vehicle sales data today.
CPI expected to hit 3.2% in 2010
THE country s consumer price index (CPI), a major gauge of inflation, was expected to rise 3.2 percent in 2010, a leading government think tank reported Tuesday.
The inflationary pressure is building and excess liquidity would be the major factor driving the CPI up in the next several years, according to the 2011 Economic Blue Paper from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Official data showed that the CPI in October rose to a 25-month high of 4.4 percent from one year earlier, and the reading increased 3 percent year on year for the first 10 months, hitting the government s target ceiling for the year.
No application yet for Xinmao s bid
THE Ministry of Commerce said Tuesday it had not yet received an application from Chinese group Xinmao for a proposed 1 billion euro (US$1.3 billion) bid for Dutch cable maker Draka, but said it would support overseas investments by Chinese companies.
The statement was the first from the government on the surprise bid by the obscure Chinese company, in response to a Reuters query last week. Some investors and analysts have been sceptical of the bid by the Xinmao Group, a privately held company in Tianjin, which does not have a track record of international takeovers. The company has the backing of China s Minsheng Banking Corp., however, which has committed to fund the deal.
