BRICS Business

FDI may have decreased slightly but the net inflow has increased as Beijing works to reduce capital outflows [Xinhua]
In a sign that China’s economy is returning to a robust level and that confidence in the world’s biggest market is getting an uplift, Beijing officials announced this weekend that the ratio of foreign capital inflows in a wide range of sectors versus outflows has reversed the negative trends of previous years.
In the first two quarters, the net inflows hit $16 billion.

China’s economy expanded 6.9 percent for the first half of 2017 [Xinhua]China’s factory output rose 6.4 per cent in July from a year earlier, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday.
For the first seven months, industrial production expanded 6.8 percent, a notch down from the 6.9-percent growth registered for the first half of the year.
Industrial output is used to measure the activity of designated large enterprises with an annual revenue of at least 20 million yuan (nearly $3 million).

Elena Shifrina’s Bite health snacks were the first-ever Russian food to serve as the “official snack” of the London Marathon this year

Healthy snacks entrepreneur Elena Shifrina was Forbes Startup of the Year in 2013, Ernst and Young (EY) Startup of the Year in 2014 in the Food Project category, Russia’s Exporter of the Year in 2016 and a mentor and jury member of the Forbes Young Billionaires Club in 2016.
In an article earlier in August, Forbes called her “the face of the healthy snacks sector in Russia”.

trade with the EU, China’s biggest trade partner, climbed 17.1 percent [Xinhua]China’s exports in yuan-denominated terms rose 11.2 percent year on year in July while imports increased 14.7 percent, customs data showed Tuesday.
Monthly trade surplus stood at 321.2 billion yuan (47.8 billion U.S. dollars) in July, up 1.4 percent year on year, according to the GAC.
Total foreign trade reached 2.32 trillion yuan last month, up 12.7 percent from a year earlier.

Analysts agree that 2017 was a good year so far for emerging markets. But can growth last? [Xinhua]
A mix of a weaker-than-expected US dollar in recent weeks and positive industrial data from China has boosted emerging markets to peak levels not seen in nearly three years.
The MSCI Emerging Markets Index – which measures equity market performance in some 26 emerging countries – rose 1 per cent Thursday, beating its record last year and registering the highest level since September 2014.

A woman works at a textile factory in Tai’an City, east China’s Shandong Province [Xinhua]China’s GDP rose 6.9 percent year on year in the second quarter of 2017, flat from the first quarter, official data showed Monday.
The pace was slightly higher than previous market consensus of 6.8 percent and well above the government’s annual target of “around 6.5 percent.”
In the first half, the growth rate was also 6.9 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement.

Image from a labour protest in April in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil [Xinhua]The Brazilian Senate has approved a bill aimed at labor market reforms amid a political crisis that has jeopardized President Temer’s rule.
The upper house passed the labour bill 50 to 26 with one abstention.
The bill allows more temporary work contracts and outsourcing, eliminating mandatory union dues, in effect weakening workers’ rights.

The BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – agreed to set up the $100 billion development bank, in a step toward reshaping the Western-dominated international financial system [Xinhua]Financing sustainable development and infrastructure projects and local currency financing remain the focus of the New Development Bank launched by the BRICS countries, according to a new policy document for the next five years.

Counter-sanctions imposed on food imports have made many areas of farming more profitable in Russia [Xinhua]Russian President Vladimir Putin, on Friday, signed a decree extending counter sanctions on the European Union until the end of 2018.
Russia banned wholesale imports of fresh food products from many Western countries in 2014 in retaliation for the EU sanctions.
Earlier on Wednesday the EU formally extended its economic sanctions on Russia, imposed in July 2014.

Workers work in new assembly production plant of China First Automotive Works (FAW) Group Corporation in Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, South Africa [Xinhua]
The South African current account deficit on the balance of payments widened to 2.1 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) on a seasonally adjusted annualised basis in the first quarter 2017 from 1.7 per cent in the fourth quarter 2016, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) said in its latest Quarterly Bulletin.