BRICS Business

China’s services sector grew at its fastest pace this year in December as a sizzlingstock market rally helped boost consumer confidence [Xinhua]
Activity in the service sector in China dipped slightly in January, the Caixin General Services Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) showed on Monday.
The Caixin China General Services PMI, which is based on data compiled from monthly replies to questionnaires sent to purchasing executives in over 400 companies, fell to 53.1 in January from 53.4 in December.
December’s figures marked a 17-month streak of activity growth.

Will voters who faced long bank queues and other hardships punish the BJP at the polls for assembly seats? [Xinhua]
In what could be the earliest test of reaction to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetization drive last quarter, two of five Indian states went to the polls today to vote for the 2017 assembly.
Polls are closing in the states of Goa and Punjab, both ruled by the country’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Modi.
The polls in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand in the north, and Manipur in the northeast will run from February 11 to March 8.

China’s stock markets fell on the first day back from the lunar new year holiday [Xinhua]
The People’s Bank of China raised interest rates on Friday amid accusations made by US President Donald Trump that Beijing was unfairly intervening to devalue the yuan.
In a move that surprised many analysts, the PBOC raised the interest rate on open market operation reverse repurchase agreements (repos) by 10 basis points.
It also raised the interest rates on short-term and medium-term loans.
The PBOC also injected nearly $93 billion to increase liquidity in the banks.

India’s stocks jumped about two per cent on Wednesday after the finance minister’s budget reveal [Xinhua]
The announcement by India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to boost government spending and reduce the base tax helped the stock exchanges jump by about two per cent on Wednesday.
This was helped by a return of growth in India’s factory activity in January and the rupee currency bouncing back 0.4 per cent, signalling that the short-term negative effects of demonetization were now a thing of the past.
But Jaitley’s 2017 budget reveal is also poginant.

The manufacturing sector has expanded for the sixth month in a row, new data has shown [Xinhua]
China’s economy is stabilizing as its manufacturing sector continues to show expansion for the sixth consecutive month, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Wednesday.
While it dropped by 0.1 from December, the manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) was 51.3 in January.
The government survey tracks the health of some 3,000 large and state-owned companies.

Nominal GDP growth in China is expected to surge, a leading investment bank says [Xinhua]
A Chinese bank, the China International Capital Corp (CICC), said on Sunday that the country’s nominal GDP is forecast to grow in Q1 2017 as economic activity improves.
Nominal GDP differs from real GDP in that it does not account for inflation.
China’s nominal GDP growth in 2016 was eight per cent, whereas its real GDP growth was 6.7 per cent, well within government expectations.

The World Bank also sees a rise in demand for oil and energy in the second half of 2017 [Xinhua]
In its January 2017 Commodity Markets Outlook report, released on Tuesday, the World Bank forecast a revival of demand in the commodity markets.
It says that falling supply and increased demand will largely contribute to a rise in gains for energy and metal commodities in 2017.

The TPP has not been popular among many Republicans and some sectors of the US workforce. People attend a rally protesting the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in Maui, Hawaii, the United States, July 29, 2015 [Xinhua]
International media pundits are warning that America’s retreat from the Asia-Pacific as it abandons the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is not only indicative of US President Donald Trump’s commitment to isolationist and protectionist policies, but also paves the way for other countries to step in and fill the vacuum.

The real estate sector has started to cool, the NBS says, after years of incredible growth and skyrocketing property prices [Xinhua]
Although China’s GDP rose to 6.8 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2016 and there was a general improvement in both the services sector and domestic consumption, there was a visible retreat in the real estate market.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported on Saturday that the real estate sector growth dipped from 8.8 per cent in Q3 to 7.7 per cent in Q4.

The NBS says that industrial output growth slowed for the year, down to 6 per cent from 6.1 percent in 2015 [Xinhua]
Buoyed by increased bank lending, higher government and consumer spending the Chinese economy grew 6.7 per cent year on year in 2016, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Friday.
While the data falls within the 6.5 to 7 per cent growth range forecast by the government, it is nevertheless less than 2015’s 6.9 per cent and is the slowest growth rate in 26 years.