Foreign debt rises to US$785.2b: SAFE

THE outstanding foreign debt of China rose to US$785.2 billion at the end of June from US$751.3 billion three months earlier, China’s foreign exchange regulator said Monday.

Short-term foreign debt, a category usually used to gauge hot-money inflows, stood at US$588.2 billion, up from US$557.7 billion at the end of March and up from US$500.9 billion at the end of December 2011, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said in a statement on its Web site. China raised the long-term foreign debt quota allocated to foreign banks to US$24 billion for 2012 to allow them to bring more money into the country.

Shares have second-straight loss

MAINLAND shares slipped for a second-straight session yesterday, dogged by weakness in commodities-related stocks following steep overnight losses in the physical markets.

The CSI300 Index of the top Shanghai and Shenzhen listings fell 1 percent to 2,235.2. The Shanghai Composite Index shed 0.9 percent. Both indices closed at their lowest since Sept. 6.

Meijin bids for Australian miner

MEIJIN Energy Group has bid A$435 million (US$457 million) to acquire Australian diversified miner Western Desert Resources Ltd., Western Desert said yesterday.

The offer of A$1.08 per share is a 26 percent premium to Western Desert’s last closing price. Western Desert said the offer value includes the rights for option holders to exercise their options and participate in the offer. Meijin’s interests span coal mining, coke production and steel making. It is developing a 4.2-billion-ton coal project in Galilee basin in Queensland state.

Slowdown ‘shows signs of bottoming’

THE cooling Chinese economy should begin to heat up heading into year-end as the government drives forward new infrastructure investments that will fuel commodity demand in the world’s second-largest economy, Rio Tinto Plc.’s Australian managing director said yesterday.

“There are some signs the slowdown may be reaching its bottom,” said the executive, David Peever. “This points to a renewed buoyancy towards the end of this year,” or the first quarter of 2013, Peever said.