Latest news with #marketisation
South China Morning Post
4 days ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
China trims US Treasury stockpiles again, Panama Canal warning: SCMP daily highlights
Catch up on some of SCMP's biggest China stories of the day. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing China trimmed its US Treasury holdings for a third straight month in May, amid escalating trade tensions with Washington and mounting concerns over a sweeping tax and spending bill. The trafficking of materials to make the drug fentanyl – the issue cited by the US in its initial tariff escalation against China in March – is set to be back in focus for future talks, analysts said, after two previous rounds did not appear to broach the subject. China's overall marketisation index, a measure of the strength of the country's market forces, is on the decline. Photo: Xinhua Chinese economists have called for more pro-market reforms to tackle economic imbalances and vicious intra-industry competition, as a new report has revealed a decline in a major index tracking the country's marketisation.
South China Morning Post
4 days ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Economists call for reform as China's famed marketisation index drops
Chinese economists have called for more pro-market reforms to tackle economic imbalances and vicious intra-industry competition, as a new report has revealed a decline in a major index tracking the country's marketisation. In a new assessment from the National Economic Research Institute, a Beijing-based think tank, China's overall level of marketisation – measured by five criteria, including government-market relations – stood at 5.62 out of 10 in 2023, slipping by 0.1 from 2019 and by 0.4 from 2021, the index's four-year peak. The index, typically published every two years, is one of the country's most influential non-governmental benchmarks. The institute has tracked China's level of marketisation and business environment through government data and surveys for decades, with a change to its baseline year for measurement in 2019. Speaking at an online forum late last month, Wang Xiaolu – the institute's deputy director and a lead researcher – called it a 'pretty significant change', and said action should be taken to reverse the trend. While the Covid-19 pandemic caused some distortions, Wang said, it also saw the state play a smaller role in economic policy in some cases and cannot be said to be the main reason for the decline. Out of the five subindexes the institute measures, government-market relations - the proportion of resources allocated by the market and reduction of government intervention in enterprises – saw the biggest deterioration since 2019, with a drop of 0.38.
