NPC on the Economy

Xinhua has ongoing special coverage of the 11th National People's Congress. Today they posted the Officials brief on Chinese economy, 11 reports on various aspects of the Chinese economy. Here are the stories and my quick summaries:

China's development chief: macroeconomic regulation "effective"
Ma Kai, Development Chief of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), says, hey, our macroeconomic reform must be effective, look at our growth! To say otherwise "doesn't accord with logic or facts."

Top planner: China Feels inflation pressure, determined to reach CPI targer
Mr. Ma says, sure, there's been price hikes, but they're just "reasonable 'price recovery.'" Don't you worry, CPI will only rise 4.8% on the year.

Top planner: China's trade surplus to "last for another period of time"
Mr. Ma says, the US had a trade surplus for 80+ years of its history, Germany has had 55 years of trade surplus, and Japan has had 26 years of trade surplus. Tough luck, this is the process of globalization.

China should be cautious of U.S. subprime crisis
Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China, says, China will experience an indirect impact from America's subprime mortgage crisis. The downturn in the U.S. economy will change the global economy and have a significant impact on international trade. Plus, the Fed's interest rate cuts will have a serious affect on China's interest rate and monetary policy. Fortunately, Mr. Zhou thinks that America's subprime crisis will only have a limited direct impact on China's economy.

China's interim price control necessary, legal
Mr. Ma says, the price hikes are only "interim measures," which means the government isn't actually interfering with market prices. It must be troubling when the government is trying to convince you that their policies are legal, and this is somehow tied into what is necessary.

Recent snow, ice storms not to change fundamentals of Chinese economy
Mr. Ma says, Dude, we totally rocked during the storm. There were some "defects in the economic development ... discovered in the storms," but we're totally fixing those. See above, sort of.

China to consider seriously adjustment of taxation policy in capital market
I was really looking forward to reading this one, but the link is broken. Blast! The small excerpt reads like Beijing is going to reduce the stock trade stamp tax.

Top bank official: stronger yuan not major inflation control means
The yuan value has nothing to do with inflation! Nothing! The value of the yuan is totally decided "by market forces, or the suppliers and demanders' predictions of the trend of a currency's value."

Mainland willing to facilitate cross-Straits currency exchange
Mr. Zhou says, Sure, we'll facilitate currency exchange between the RMB and the New Taiwan Dollar, it only "requires willingness and political conditions" between Taiwan and Beijing.

China continues to lift restrictions on citizens' overseas investment
Mr. Zhou says, we don't want domestic investment overheating so restrictions will continue to be lifted.

Central bank governor voices room for China's interest rate increase
Mr. Zhou says, "China has many domestic factors to be considered in interest rate adjustment." Really, interest rate adjustment has nothing to with interest rate adjustments happening in some country on the other side of the Pacific.