China's CPI rises 3.1% in May

China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 3.1 percent year-on-year in May, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced here Friday.

The May figure was up 0.3 percentage points from April's rise of 2.8 percent. It also surpassed the central government's targeted 3 percent annual inflation limit. [Full Story]

China's May PPI up 7.1%

China's producer price index (PPI), a major measure of inflation at the wholesale level, increased by 7.1 percent year-on-year in May, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced today.

The increase of PPI in the first five months this year reached 5.9 percent, compared with the same period last year.[Full Story]

China's new yuan-dominated lending in May shrank to 639.4 billion yuan ($93.6 billion) from 774 billion yuan in April, the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, said in a statement Friday.

China's broad money supply (M2), which covers cash in circulation and all deposits, increased 21 percent year-on-year to 66.34 trillion yuan by the end of May, according to the PBOC statement on its website. [Full Story]

China's urban fixed asset investment up 25.9% in first 5 months

Urban fixed asset investment in China for the first five months rose 25.9 percent year-on-year to 6.74 trillion yuan ($986.76 billion), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced Friday.

The growth rate was 0.2 percentage points down from that for the first four months, according to the NBS. [Full Story]

China's retail sales up 18.7% in May

China's retail sales increased by 18.7 percent in May over the same period last year, and totaled 1,245.5 billion yuan ($182 billion), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced today.

The growth rate was 3.5 percentage points higher than the same period last year and 0.2 percentage points higher than April's, said NBS spokesman Sheng Laiyun. [Full Story]

May industrial output grows 16.5%

China's industrial output grew by 16.5 percent in May year-on-year, 1.3 percentage points lower than April's 17.8 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced today.

The growth rate was 7.6 percentage points higher than in May last year, but 1.3 percentage points lower than April's, said Sheng Laiyun, a spokesman with the NBS. [Full Story]

China's home prices rise 12.4% in May

Home prices in 70 large and medium-sized Chinese cities rose by 12.4 percent year-on-year in May, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement Thursday.

The growth rate was 0.4 percentage points lower than that of April, as property sales in first-tier cities, including, Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, contracted following a string of government measures to rein in price rises. [Full Story]

China's exports up 48.5% in May

China's exports in May totaled $131.7 billion, up 48.5 percent from a year ago and 18.1 percent from April, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said on Thursday. The figure is much higher than previous expectation.

Combining imports and exports, China's May external trade rose 48.4 percent year-on-year to $243.9 billion, among it imports reached $112.2 billion, up 48.3 percent year-on-year. [Full Story]

China's FDI grows 27.48% in May

The amount of foreign direct investment (FDI) into China in May rose by 27.48 percent year-on-year to $8.13 billion, said Yao Jian, spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce (MOC), Saturday.

The figure brought the country's FDI to $38.92 billion in the first five months, an increase of 14.31 percent from a year earlier.

[Full Story]

The excessive fixed investment rate is the result of heavy lending and high asset prices. The share of investment to GDP in Japan was 31 percent in 1988-1990. It is about 41 percent in China today. [Full Story]

Syetarn Hansakul, senior economist at Deustche Bank

Make no mistake about it, the housing bubble is real, contrary to what many critics have said recently. So if the economy is to develop effectively and distinctly from its old growth model, housing market problems must be rectified. [Full Story]

Zuo Xiaolei, chief economist of Yinhe Securities

In the next two or three years, the housing market will therefore experience moderate adjustments. Housing prices will fall slowly and trading volume will increase at a speed below the average.[Full Story]

Gao Shanwen, chief economist of Essence Securities

It is the Chinese people who are inflating the housing bubble as they seek more attractive returns than those offered by low-interest saving accounts. [Full Story]

Will the soaring housing prices be tamed? What are the problems of China's property market?

Housing prices have made owing an apartment almost unachievable for most of China's youngsters in big cities. The Chinese government has rolled out a series of policies to control home prices. Will they work?

The government does not plan to cut the cost of land to provide cheaper apartments to low-income families. Instead, it wants to force real estate developers to build affordable houses. [Full Story] 

Ren Zhiqiang, chairman of Hua Yuan Real Estate group

There is no real estate bubble in China. Rising property prices reflect the basic law of economics. Different from the supply-demand relationship of ordinary commodities, supply in the real estate sector is always subject to strict controls in terms of urban planning, land supply, building and planning targets, while demand can at most be influenced by fiscal and monetary policies. [Full Story]

Dong Fan, director of Housing Market Research Center at Beijing Normal University.

Although talk of a possible property tax delay was denied by the country's top economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), there is convincing evidence that top-level officials do realize the potential side effects of their ongoing campaign.

Their original intention was to cool down runaway house prices, not to bring transactions to a virtual halt; and to help the economy avoid an imminent asset bubble, not to let it fall short of its yearly growth target.

[Full Story]

Li Xiang, reporter with China Daily

Land monopolies mean the country's real estate industry should not be taken as a full market player and that houses are by no means common property.

As a sector that is partly entrusted with guaranteeing and improving people's livelihood, the real estate sector should not be completely subject to market regulation. [Full Story]

Shi Jianxun, professor at the School of Economics and Management, Tongji University