Fewer residents willing to invest: central bank

CHINA’S urban residents were more willing to increase consumption and deposit savings than invest in the fourth quarter of 2021, said a central bank survey.

Among the 20,000 urban bank depositors surveyed in 50 cities across China, 24.7 percent expressed their willingness to increase consumption in the fourth quarter, 0.6 percentage points up from the previous quarter, according to the survey conducted by the People’s Bank of China. Respondents who were willing to deposit more savings in the fourth quarter accounted for 51.8 percent, up 1 percentage point from the previous quarter.

Added value of sports industry hits US$168.37b

CHINA’S sports industry saw its added value reach 1.07 trillion yuan (US$168.37 billion) in 2020, down 4.6 percent from one year earlier due to COVID-19 shocks, official data showed.

Sports services took up a 68.7 percent share in total added value, up 1 percentage point year on year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Contactless and administrative services have been welcomed amid the pandemic, with sports communications and information services logging an 18.9 percent growth in added value.

Developers post annual drop in property sales

THE value of new homes sold by China’s largest real estate companies fell annually for the first time since at least 2016 and declined further in December, suggesting a weak property sector continues to be a drag on the world’s second-largest economy.

The hundred largest developers in China sold homes worth 11.1 trillion yuan (US$1.7 trillion) in 2021, down 3.5 percent on 2020, according to China Real Estate Information Corp. December’s sales fell 35 percent compared with the same month last year, after declining 38 percent in November.

New energy vehicle subsidies cut by 30%

CHINA has cut its subsidies on new energy vehicles (NEV) by 30 percent this year, according to the Ministry of Finance.

The 2022 NEV subsidies policy will terminate Dec. 31, 2022 and NEV will not be subsidized afterwards. The ministry said in April 2020 that subsidies for NEV would be cut from 2020 to 2022 by 10, 20 and 30 percent respectively. For NEVs for public transport, subsidies would be cut by 10 percent in 2021 and 20 percent in 2022. China has set a target for NEVs to make up 20 percent of auto sales by 2025.