Posted on 06/08/2013 6:36:27 AM PDT by blam
Chinese Trade Numbers Come In Massively Below Forecasts
Fran Wang, Agence France Presse
June 8, 2013, 6:07 AM
Reuters
China on Saturday reported a sharp slowdown in exports in May compared to the previous month while imports unexpectedly dropped, as the world's second largest economy grapples with slowing growth and sluggish overseas demand.
Overseas shipments rose just one percent to $182.8 billion last month, far lower than 14.7 percent recorded in April, customs authorities said in a statement.
It also missed a medium forecast of 5.6 percent expansion in a Dow Jones Newswires' poll of economists.
Imports dropped 0.3 percent to $162.3 billion, said the statement, down from a rise of 16.8 percent in April and well below the economists' median forecast of a five percent increase.
Trade surplus stood at $20.4 billion last month, it said, widening marginally from the previous month.
The disappointing performance was due to "a slowdown in the domestic economy, sluggish foreign demand, companies' high costs, the appreciation in the yuan's real value and a worsening trade environment", customs said.
It was also a result of a crackdown on misreporting by importers and exporters, it added. They may have overstated their business to seek to evade Chinese government controls on capital movements and channel funds into the country, he said.
Two-way trade between Hong Kong and the Futian Bonded Area, in the nearby Chinese city of Shenzhen, soared by "an extremely abnormal rate" of six times in the first quarter of the year, state broadcaster China Central Television reported Saturday.
A truck carrying the same batch of electronic products crossed the border 54 times in 11 days in April, each time logged onto the customs' record as a new shipment, it said.
The world's second-largest economy registered 7.8 percent growth in 2012
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
So much for Timmy’s and Ben’s plan to fuel US growth with Chinese imports.
Next?
Back in 1976 we sent a person to Saudi Arabia as a part of a construction trade mission. He visited a job site in Jeddah.
He told of Yemani laborers with the ubiquitous rubber buckets shown. They shoveled gravel into the buckets and then poured it into the scoop of a front end loader.
So Chinese exports are still growing just not as much as they had hoped.
"Imports dropped 0.3 percent to $162.3 billion,
Even as they buy even less from us than they already do.
"Trade surplus stood at $20.4 billion last month, it said, widening marginally from the previous month."
How big does it have to get before we restore the import tariffs?
May I be the first to say “UNEXPECTEDLY”?
How does this paragraph fit in to the rest of the article?
Fake shipments = fake numbers.
Seems to me I read of a similar ploy being used on the Canadian border to pump up some stats in the U.S.
They’ve been working very diligently to crash the American economy.
Gee guys, what did you think would happen to you when you succeeded in killing your biggest customer, hmmmm?
Where's OSHA?
Unbelieveable.
Eventually, the pep pills wear off and you’re tired out with a really bad headache.
What is a trade deficit?
It's just the difference in the value of goods that you're buying from another country from what that country is buying from you.
In 2011, we imported from China $400 Billion of goods, but we only exported $100 Billion of goods to China, thus created a trade deficit for the year of $300 billion.
Some will tell you that it doesn't matter because that $300 billion eventually has to come home. They will eventually buy something with that $300 billion. But it does matter, because it matters what they buy.
If they buy US made goods with the $300 billion, then usually everyone wins. Both US and China specialize in what they do well and both end up richer. Though there are still some reasons why that might not be in our best interest.
But in China's case, the communist government has taxes that are equal to 90% of China's GNP. Therefore what happens is that all those dollars get sucked back up by the Chinese government. And it's the Chinese government that then gets to decide what to do with the $300 billion, not Chinese consumers.
And what China does with that money is not to buy US made goods, but rather our manufacturing plants that they can then transfer the technology to China and compete against us. Or they buy our debt so that we will be paying them interest. The end result of allowing China to continue to sell us stuff that they don't spend in trade but rather in purchasing our manufacturing know how is not good. It's an out of business strategy.
So we received exactly $400 billion worth of real stuff and the Chinese took paper dollars for it, yes? Where's the deficit? All those goods were paid for.
What is the Chinese net investment in the US?
As of 2012 they owned $1.1 Trillion of U.S. Debt for which we have to pay them interest.
I don't have a source of how many businesses they have bought through the years. Or how many they still operate in the U.S.
China just bought Smithfield for $4.6 billion last week. That single purchase gives them control of about 44,000 U.S. jobs. And I bet no small portion of those will be relocated to China.
This source says China has bought 650 U.S. Firms since 2000.
China Investment Monitor
Where's The Money: Chinese Investments in U.S.
Chinese Investment: Europe vs. the United States
It's an absolutely brilliant strategy on behalf of the Chinese. It capitalizes on a peculiar weakness of capitalism. Specifically, that the total value of a firm to a nation is far greater than the value of the firm's profit stream to the owners. This difference is due to the taxes, employee income, and downstream supplier effects. And it's this difference that caused the U.S. government to bail out automakers in the past.
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