China used to look outward for economic growth, but a continuing global downturn has the country instead turning inward to develop its own markets, along with subsequent exchange traded funds (ETFs).
Chinese companies are not as enthusiastic about investing in overseas ventures, according to People’s Daily Online. In a survey, around 85% of companies with overseas business were negatively affected by the crisis and only 7% will augment outflows this year. About 40% of respondents think they will expand overseas in the next two years.
The government put policies in place to entice companies into overseas investments, but credit insurance and foreign exchange facilities are not providing a high level of confidence.
Premier Wen Jiabao and other top Chinese officials are setting up China as the next top economic power, reports Ariana Eunjung Cha for The Washington Post. There is are talks of a “Beijing Consensus” that may displace the Washington Consensus on how developing countries should manage their own economies.
China has been increasing its influence with more overseas aid and loans, and simultaneously denouncing the primacy of the dollar. Other countries, mostly those borrowing from China, are supporting China in creating a new world or Asian reserve currency.
As a new middle class is growing in China, consumption is bound to increase within China. Book publishers that are struggling in core markets of the United States and the United Kingdom are setting their eyes on overseas markets, write Chris Tryhorn and Richard Wray for the Guardian. In China, consumer tastes lean toward books with themes about earning money and family health.
- iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index (FXI): up 9% year-to-date
Max Chen contributed to this article.
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