(Yicai) Jan. 8 — Confidence in China’s economy has strengthened this month, amid last year’s solid economic progress, according to the findings of Yicai’s monthly survey of leading chief economists.
The Yicai Chief Economists Confidence Index came in at 50.3 for January, up from 50 in December, according to the findings of a survey of 14 leading China-based chief economists.
The consumer price index likely rose 0.8 percent last month from a year earlier, compared with a 0.7 percent growth in November, the economists predicted. The producer price index probably fell 2 percent in the period, lower than the 2.2 percent decline in November.
The economists expected industrial added value to have climbed 4.9 percent, fixed asset investment to have dropped 2.2 percent, and retail sales of consumer goods to have risen 1.8 percent in December from a year earlier. All three figures are better than the November data.
China’s trade surplus is expected to have exceeded USD111.3 billion last month, just below November’s USD111.7 billion, according to the economists.
Their average forecast for new Chinese yuan-denominated loans was CNY718.3 billion (USD102.8 billion) last month, much higher than CNY290 billion in November, and for new social financing, it was CNY1.8 trillion (USD257.6 billion) in December, greatly lower than the CNY2.5 billion the previous month.
M2, a broad gauge of money supply that covers cash in circulation and all deposits, likely grew 8 percent last month, the same as in November, according to the survey.
China had foreign exchange reserves of USD3.3579 trillion as of Dec. 31, up by USD11.5 billion as of Nov. 30, according to data released by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange. The economists had expected USD3.35879 trillion.
Editor: Futura Costaglione