Pork output plunges

THE country produced 31.81 million tons of pork in the first nine months of 2019, down 17.2 percent from the same period last year, official data showed Friday, after African swine fever devastated its hog herd.

Output fell as the size of the herd declined 28.5 percent from a year earlier to 306.75 million head as of the end of September, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said. That was down 11.76 percent from the 347.61 million head it reported for the end of the first half of the year. The decline in pork output is less than expected, with agriculture ministry data this week showing the hog herd has shrunk by 41 percent year on year, much more than the statistics bureau’s estimate of 28.5 percent.

Consumer credit

CHINESE families show robust demand for consumer credit, a recent study showed.

In 2019, 16.2 percent of Chinese families had demand for consumer credit, 2.5 percentage points higher than the family participation rate of consumer credit, according to a report released by the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics and the research institution of Ant Financial Services Group.

Textile industry

CHINA will step up efforts to boost investment in the textile industry in Belt and Road (B&R) countries, according to the China National Textile and Apparel Council.

Over 80 percent of Chinese textile and apparel industry’s global investment flowed to the B&R region from 2015 to 2018, according to data from the CNTAC. In the future, the CNTAC will continue to facilitate investment in B&R countries and push forward international production capacity cooperation in the textile sector, said Gao Yong, the council’s Party secretary.