BEIJING, May 19 (Xinhua) -- China will increase
subsidies for consumers who sell their cars and home appliances in order to
purchase new ones, in an effort to spur domestic consumption and curb pollution,
according to a cabinet meeting held Tuesday.
The government will raise subsidies for auto
replacements from 1 billion yuan to 5 billion yuan this year, and allocate 2
billion Yuan to encourage home appliance upgrades, an executive meeting of the
State Council presided over by Premier Wen Jiabao said.
The move will further help stimulate domestic
spending after the rebate program for auto and home appliance buyers in the
rural areas greatly boosted rural consumption, said a statement from the
meeting.
Consumers who trade-in their used mid- and
small-sized truck and some types of mid-sized passenger cars for new ones will
receive a subsidy.
Subsidies will also be given to consumers who sell
automobiles that no longer meet the government's emission standard, but are
still within life expectancy.
The subsidy will be no more than the purchase tax of
the automobile.
A pilot program of home appliance replacement will
start in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Fuzhou, Changsha and provinces of Jiangsu,
Zhejiang, Shandong, Guangdong, said the statement. No specific date was given.
Buyers will receive a subsidy worth 10 percent of the
prices on five kinds of new appliances, namely, TV sets, refrigerators, washing
machines, air-conditioners and computers.
Retail sales kept solid growth in China as the
world's third largest economy turned to domestic consumption for growth after
exports tumbled.
Retail sales rose 14.8 percent in April year on year
to 934.32 billion yuan (136.8 billion U.S. dollars), the National Bureau of
Statistics (NBS) announced last Wednesday.
The growth rate was 0.1 percentage point higher than
in March.
From January to April, retail sales totaled 3.87
trillion Yuan, up 15 percent over the same period last year.
More than 1.15 million vehicles were sold last month
in China, up 25 percent year on year, according to China Association of
Automobile Manufacturers on May 8.
Sales were boosted by government stimulus policies,
Zhang Yunpeng, an analyst with Beijing-based Huarong securities told Xinhua last
Wednesday. China in January halved the purchase tax on passenger cars to 5
percent for models with engine displacements of less than 1.6 liters.
As part of the government effort to boost
consumption, China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) said on May 12 that the
consumers will get loans without collateral for buying durable goods, including
appliances and electronic products, and other private consumption such as travel
and education.
BEIJING, May 18 (Xinhua) -- The State Council, China's
Cabinet, Monday announced that it would endeavor to create 3 million new jobs in
light industry in the coming three years by boosting domestic demand.
The State Council in February unveiled initial plans to
boost light industry in a bid to buoy the economy together with the
4-trillion-yuan (586 billion U.S. dollars) stimulus package presented in
November and nine other specific industry stimulus plans including
petrochemicals, textiles and other sectors. Full story
BEIJING, May 18 (Xinhua) -- China plans to raise its
annual crude oil processing capacity to 405 million tonnes by 2011, the State
Council, or the Cabinet, said on Monday in its restructuring and stimulus plans
for the petrochemical industry.
That would represent an increase of about 18.4
percent over its processing volume last year, which topped 342.1 million tonnes,
according to the January figures from the National Bureau of Statistics.
Full story
HONG KONG, May 18 (Xinhua) -- China will definitely be
able to meet the target of achieving eight percent economic growth in 2009, a
senior official of the country's top economic planning body said here Monday.
"Judging from the indicators of the first four
months, I do believe it is highly possible to achieve an eight percent growth
for the full year. In fact, I believe the target will definitely be met," said
Xulin, head of the Department of Fiscal and Financial Affairs of the National
Development and Reform Commission. Full story
GUANGZHOU, May 17 (Xinhua) -- At a sales booth in a
special trade fair here in southern China, Zhou was complaining how hard it was
to sell her products.
"We sell them at factory-gate prices, but buyers
still bargain. That makes me mad," said Zhou, a Taiwanese senior manager of Poly
Dragon Industrial, which is based in the booming city of Dongguan neighboring
Guangzhou, capital of China's manufacturing base Guangdong Province. Full story
BEIJING, May 13 (Xinhua) -- China will allow
non-deposit-taking institutions both home and overseas to offer consumer loans
to its citizens, a new measure to stimulate domestic consumption.
China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) issued, on
its portal Web site Tuesday, management measures on the experiment of consumer
financing companies to seek public opinions. Full story
