Money laundering

The central bank last week issued two regulations outlining the responsibilities of financial institutions in the fight against money laundering.

Under the new rules, financial institutions must report all major and suspicious transactions to the central bank's anti-money laundering monitoring and analysis centre.

All financial institutions are required to set up a system that will allow them to identify their customers easily.

The central bank also intends to set up a national database to keep records of all major and suspicious deals.

FDI increase

Realized foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country rose in October after annualized declines in the previous four months, the Ministry of Commerce said last week.

The amount grew nearly 16 per cent to US$5.99 billion and 3,047 foreign-invested enterprises were approved.

The country attracted US$48.58 billion in FDI from January to October, up 0.34 per cent from a year earlier, ministry spokesman Chong Quan told a news briefing.

During the same period, 33,068 foreign-invested ventures were approved, down 6.32 per cent year on year.

Publicizing audits

China's top auditor has pledged to continue publicizing audit results from government departments, particularly those of the central government, in a continuous push to regulate and enhance transparency of government spending.

"Fiscal revenue comes mainly from taxpayers. There should be an explanation to the taxpayers of how the money is spent," Li Jinhua, auditor-general of the National Audit Office, said last week at a meeting in Beijing of fiscal chiefs of central government departments.

"The only way to explain this is to publish audit results, except information involving state secrets," said Li, who has become a national icon for starting a crusade against irregularities in government spending, a major concern of the public.

World Bank forecast

The World Bank last week raised its growth forecast for the Chinese economy next year, citing favourable domestic macro-economic prospects.

The Washington-based bank expects China to register a 9.6 per cent growth in its gross domestic product in 2007, up from its previous forecast of 9.3 per cent made in August, the bank said in its latest quarterly China Economic Report released last week.

The bank's growth forecast for the Chinese economy this year remained unchanged at 10.4 per cent.

The national economy expanded 10.4 per cent in the third quarter, down from a decade-high 11.3 per cent recorded in the second quarter.

Real estate investigations

The central government's next steps to cool the nation's overheated property market will be targeted at real estate enterprises.

Investigations have been launched into more than 300 real estate projects in Beijing, China Business News last week quoted Li Wenjie, general manager of Beijing Centaline Real Estate Agency, as saying.

Li said that the central government took the step after previous financial measures to rein in soaring housing prices had little impact.

The investigations aim to crack down on malpractices by real estate enterprises, such as illegal acquisition of land and tax evasion.

CPI increase

China's consumer price index (CPI) grew 1.4 per cent year-on-year in October, down from 1.5 per cent in September, according to figures released by National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) last week.

CPI, a major barometer of inflation, was up 1.3 per cent in the first 10 months this year from a year earlier, NBS figures showed.

It recorded a 1.4 per cent rise in in urban areas and 1.3 per cent rise in rural areas in October.

Service prices edged up 1.5 per cent year-on-year last month, while consumer goods prices climbed 1.4 per cent year-on-year in the same period, the figures showed.

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