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I debiti inesigibili in Cina potrebbero causare un problema...
China's c.bank says bad debt could cause crisis
BEIJING, Dec 8 (Reuters) - China's Central Bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan has warned of a possible financial crisis if the country's non-performing loans (NPL) continue to pile up, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday.
His comments came as Mai Kai, head of the State Development and Reform Commission, said he expected China's economy to continue its robust growth, with GDP increasing by nine percent or more this year.
Analysts have long said China's ailing banking sector is the Achilles Heel of the world's seventh-largest economy, and overhauling state banks has been a key goal for Beijing after decades of using them as cash registers for the centrally planned, socialist economy.
"The NPL ratio would be higher if we did a bad job in the improvement of 'financial ecology', which is still possible to entail a financial crisis," a Xinhua report, in English, quoted Zhou as saying.
Financial reform is "a fight to win or die", said Zhou, head of the central People's Bank of China.
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and Agricultural Bank of China may still pose a threat to banking system reforms because of mounting bad debts, it said Zhou told a recent economic forum.
ICBC and Agricultural Bank are poised for reform and Xinhua said they would probably go public in 2006 and 2007, respectively. ICBC may initiate joint-stock reform as early as this month, it quoted industrial sources as saying.
But their bad debts were a problem, and Beijing has told the big banks to clean up their balance sheets in preparation for stock listings and rising foreign competition when the sector is fully opened at the end of 2006.
ICBC said its non-performing loan ratio declined 1.77 percentage points from early this year to 19.46 percent at the end of September, "still a scary figure for overseas investors", Xinhua said.
The Agricultural Bank's bad loan ratio is thought to be even higher but the bank refused to reveal the proportion, saying only that its NPL ratio dropped 3.64 percent from January to September, the most recent period for which information is available.
"Large-scale non-performing assets that surpass the normal standard of a market economy should not re-occur," Zhou was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, Ma Kai told a meeting on development and reform that he expected China's gross domestic product to grow by nine percent or more this year.
"On one hand, some outstanding economic contradictions have been eased, unstable and unhealthy factors have been curbed," a separate Xinhua article quoted Ma as saying.
"On the other hand, the national economy has continued to maintain the good momentum of a relatively rapid development."
Beijing has been trying to cool the economy and the comments came a day before China is to start releasing new monthly economic data which economists will be watching for signs of which direction the economy is headed.
La Cina passerà gradualmente ad un regime più flessibile...
China says moving gradually to flexible forex rate
THE HAGUE, Dec 8 (Reuters) - China will move gradually to a flexible exchange rate regime but will take into account the need to maintain the stability of its economy and those of its neighbours, Premier Wen Jiabao said on Wednesday.
"We are pursuing a managed floating exchange rate," Wen told a news conference after a meeting with senior European Union officials. "We will gradually make the exchange rate more flexible."
"We must take into account the global implications of this reform," he added, noting that China had helped prevent a wider impact from the 1997 financial crisis in East Asia by resisting pressure to devalue its currency.
The United States has pressed China to make the yuan, also known as the renminbi, freely convertible, saying its current fixed level near 8.28 to the dollar is artificially low and makes Chinese goods unfairly cheap on world markets.
China has repeatedly said liberalisation is a long-term goal but it will make changes using its own timetable and not amid a intense speculation or foreign pressure.
Wen said that timetable included ensuring that China had a more efficient market economy and financial system, probably a reference to Beijing's plan to strengthen its banks and improve its capital market regulations.
Many economists believe, however, that a move like widening the yuan's razor-thin trading band could come quite soon. The yuan's trading band is 8.2760-8.20 per dollar.
"It's clear that they have been investigating the issue of what to do with their exchange rate and they are also aware of the constraints facing them," said Diana Choyleva, senior economist at Lombard Street Research Ltd.
She said a free float of the yuan or revaluation of the currency was unlikely to happen anytime soon.
"But they could allow the yuan to move within a small band or link it to a basket of currencies. That could happen sooner rather than later," she said.
Circa l'11% del guadagno dei refinanziamenti mutui nel periodo 2001/2002 sono stati reinvestiti sul mercato azionario in US
NASD Warns of Risky Home-Equity Investing
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Too many house-rich Americans are borrowing money against their homes to play the stock market, brokerages regulator NASD warned on Wednesday.
In an alert to brokers who may be encouraging the trend, the NASD reminded Wall Street that it has a responsibility to steer investors away from unsuitable financial strategies.
"Many homeowners have become wealthier -- at least on paper -- because of escalating home values. And more of them than ever before are tapping into their increased home equity to purchase securities," said NASD Vice Chairman Mary Schapiro.
"But turning equity into cash to make financial investments ... poses significant and unique risks, and failure to understand those risks could cost them their biggest asset -- their home," Schapiro said in a statement.
About 11 percent of gains from mortgage refinancings were plowed into the stock market and other financial investments in 2001 through mid-2002, up from less than 2 percent in 1998 through mid-1999, a recent Federal Reserve study showed.
Brokers should make sure investors understand that they could lose their homes if investment returns will not cover new mortgage or line of credit obligations, NASD said.
Further, investors need to know that brokers earn fees and commissions by getting clients to invest in the market with money from refinancings or home equity lines of credit.
I debiti inesigibili in Cina potrebbero causare un problema...
China's c.bank says bad debt could cause crisis
BEIJING, Dec 8 (Reuters) - China's Central Bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan has warned of a possible financial crisis if the country's non-performing loans (NPL) continue to pile up, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday.
His comments came as Mai Kai, head of the State Development and Reform Commission, said he expected China's economy to continue its robust growth, with GDP increasing by nine percent or more this year.
Analysts have long said China's ailing banking sector is the Achilles Heel of the world's seventh-largest economy, and overhauling state banks has been a key goal for Beijing after decades of using them as cash registers for the centrally planned, socialist economy.
"The NPL ratio would be higher if we did a bad job in the improvement of 'financial ecology', which is still possible to entail a financial crisis," a Xinhua report, in English, quoted Zhou as saying.
Financial reform is "a fight to win or die", said Zhou, head of the central People's Bank of China.
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and Agricultural Bank of China may still pose a threat to banking system reforms because of mounting bad debts, it said Zhou told a recent economic forum.
ICBC and Agricultural Bank are poised for reform and Xinhua said they would probably go public in 2006 and 2007, respectively. ICBC may initiate joint-stock reform as early as this month, it quoted industrial sources as saying.
But their bad debts were a problem, and Beijing has told the big banks to clean up their balance sheets in preparation for stock listings and rising foreign competition when the sector is fully opened at the end of 2006.
ICBC said its non-performing loan ratio declined 1.77 percentage points from early this year to 19.46 percent at the end of September, "still a scary figure for overseas investors", Xinhua said.
The Agricultural Bank's bad loan ratio is thought to be even higher but the bank refused to reveal the proportion, saying only that its NPL ratio dropped 3.64 percent from January to September, the most recent period for which information is available.
"Large-scale non-performing assets that surpass the normal standard of a market economy should not re-occur," Zhou was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, Ma Kai told a meeting on development and reform that he expected China's gross domestic product to grow by nine percent or more this year.
"On one hand, some outstanding economic contradictions have been eased, unstable and unhealthy factors have been curbed," a separate Xinhua article quoted Ma as saying.
"On the other hand, the national economy has continued to maintain the good momentum of a relatively rapid development."
Beijing has been trying to cool the economy and the comments came a day before China is to start releasing new monthly economic data which economists will be watching for signs of which direction the economy is headed.
La Cina passerà gradualmente ad un regime più flessibile...
China says moving gradually to flexible forex rate
THE HAGUE, Dec 8 (Reuters) - China will move gradually to a flexible exchange rate regime but will take into account the need to maintain the stability of its economy and those of its neighbours, Premier Wen Jiabao said on Wednesday.
"We are pursuing a managed floating exchange rate," Wen told a news conference after a meeting with senior European Union officials. "We will gradually make the exchange rate more flexible."
"We must take into account the global implications of this reform," he added, noting that China had helped prevent a wider impact from the 1997 financial crisis in East Asia by resisting pressure to devalue its currency.
The United States has pressed China to make the yuan, also known as the renminbi, freely convertible, saying its current fixed level near 8.28 to the dollar is artificially low and makes Chinese goods unfairly cheap on world markets.
China has repeatedly said liberalisation is a long-term goal but it will make changes using its own timetable and not amid a intense speculation or foreign pressure.
Wen said that timetable included ensuring that China had a more efficient market economy and financial system, probably a reference to Beijing's plan to strengthen its banks and improve its capital market regulations.
Many economists believe, however, that a move like widening the yuan's razor-thin trading band could come quite soon. The yuan's trading band is 8.2760-8.20 per dollar.
"It's clear that they have been investigating the issue of what to do with their exchange rate and they are also aware of the constraints facing them," said Diana Choyleva, senior economist at Lombard Street Research Ltd.
She said a free float of the yuan or revaluation of the currency was unlikely to happen anytime soon.
"But they could allow the yuan to move within a small band or link it to a basket of currencies. That could happen sooner rather than later," she said.
Circa l'11% del guadagno dei refinanziamenti mutui nel periodo 2001/2002 sono stati reinvestiti sul mercato azionario in US
NASD Warns of Risky Home-Equity Investing
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Too many house-rich Americans are borrowing money against their homes to play the stock market, brokerages regulator NASD warned on Wednesday.
In an alert to brokers who may be encouraging the trend, the NASD reminded Wall Street that it has a responsibility to steer investors away from unsuitable financial strategies.
"Many homeowners have become wealthier -- at least on paper -- because of escalating home values. And more of them than ever before are tapping into their increased home equity to purchase securities," said NASD Vice Chairman Mary Schapiro.
"But turning equity into cash to make financial investments ... poses significant and unique risks, and failure to understand those risks could cost them their biggest asset -- their home," Schapiro said in a statement.
About 11 percent of gains from mortgage refinancings were plowed into the stock market and other financial investments in 2001 through mid-2002, up from less than 2 percent in 1998 through mid-1999, a recent Federal Reserve study showed.
Brokers should make sure investors understand that they could lose their homes if investment returns will not cover new mortgage or line of credit obligations, NASD said.
Further, investors need to know that brokers earn fees and commissions by getting clients to invest in the market with money from refinancings or home equity lines of credit.
