The government declines to release third quarter economic data
Business briefs from the Chinese media โ Monday October 17
The economy is doing great but we won’t release the numbers: At a press conference this morning at the 20th Communist Party Congress in Beijing, Zhร o Chรฉnxฤซn ่ตต่พฐๆ, Deputy Director of the powerful national planning body, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), stated that Chinaโs economy โrebounded significantlyโ in the third quarter.
After his comments, however, the National Bureau of Statistics announced that the release of economic data for the third quarter has been delayed, without giving any reason or a new release date.
Theyโre not hiring: According to a new report released by online recruitment platform Liepin.com ็่, compared with the second quarter, 39.78% of companies reduced their recruitment in the third quarter, 36.51% kept their recruitment the same, and only 23.71% increased their recruitment. The industries with the largest new recruitment were electronic communications, pharmaceutical, medical care, and manufacturing.
Itโs cheap to ship goods from Shanghai to LA: The abnormal decline of container freight rates in what is usually the third quarter peak season has continued in October. On October 14, the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI) dropped to 1,814 points, and has declined almost 70% from the beginning of the year. The route from Shanghai to the west coast of North America has declined the most, from a high of $8,117 in February to $2,097, a decrease of nearly 80%.
Solar panel export volume keeps rising: On Friday, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced that the export volume of solar panels from January to August was about 108 gigawatts (GW), a year-on-year increase of 70.2%.
