Current and future news about China

China’s Economy continues to grow at about 10.6% for 2007. In the first quarter China grew at 11.1%.

The yuan is at 7.72 to the US dollar.

Xinhua Finance and the Milken Institute have launched eight indicators which provide more insight into the Chinese economy.

There is the RMB pressure indicator which indicates there is 1.96 times more pressure on the RMB (yuan) Jan 2007 than in Jan 2000. This pressure seems to indicate that the Yuan will rise faster against the dollar.

A 400 page report produced by chinese officials indicates that global warming could devastate China’s development Unless steps are taken, water scarcity and increasingly extreme weather could reduce nationwide crop production by up to 10 percent by 2030. Wheat, rice and corn growing capacity could fall by up to 37 percent in the second half of the century. “For a considerable time to come, developing the economy and improving people’s lives remains the country’s primary task,” the report says.

Asia’s cancer rate could rise almost 60 percent to 7.1 million new cases a year by 2020. Aging populations, tobacco use and increasing rates of obesity are fueling the incidence of deadly tumors.

The chinese population has 1.1 billion debit cards and 50 million credit cards.
China’s Internet users will hit more than 140 million by the middle of 2007.

Chinese consumers remain frugal with a high savings and low debt rate From Businessweek, the wage growth for chinese workers has lagged the overall growth of the chinese economy and the chinese government is trying to stimulate growth