Friday_____________________ May 31

Number of millionaires on the rise

China is poised to overtake Japan this year as the nation with the world's second-most millionaire households, behind the United States, according to a new Boston Consulting Group report.

By the end of 2017, the Asia-Pacific region will see private wealth grow to an estimated $48.1 trillion, just surpassing North America as the world's wealthiest region, the report said.

BCG calculates millionaires by their investable assets excluding a primary residence or business. In 2012, the US had the most millionaire households, 5.9 million, followed by Japan, 1.5 million, and China, 1.3 million.

Globally, the total number of millionaire households reached 13.8 million, or 0.9 percent of all households. The US had the largest number of billionaires in 2012.

The report states that "new world" regions such as Asia-Pacific, excluding Japan, are expected to account for nearly 70 percent of the growth in global private wealth in the next five years. (Photo 1)

China to study joining Asia-Pacific trade pact

China is studying the possibility of joining the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, according to a Ministry of Commerce spokesman.

It is the strongest official sign that Beijing has overcome its earlier opposition to the proposed accord for the Asia-Pacific region.

"We will analyze the advantages, disadvantages and the possibility of joining the TPP, based on careful research and according to principles of equality and mutual benefit," spokesman Shen Danyang told reporters at a briefing on May 30. "China also hopes to exchange information and materials with TPP members on the negotiations," Shen said.

In April, countries negotiating the TPP approved Japan's entry as the 12th party to the proposed free-trade zone, potentially widening its scope to nearly 40 percent of global economic activity and one-third of trade.

Monday_____________________ June 3

ZTE aims to send flagship phones to US

ZTE Corp says it will "very soon" announce some "good news" about making its flagship smartphones available in the US.

Asked in an interview when ZTE would bring phones like its Grand S or Grand Memo to the US, Lixin Cheng, CEO of ZTE USA, told online technology news outlet Engadget in a recent interview: "We are working on that, and I think that very soon we will announce some good news."

The Grand S has a 5-inch screen and 6.9mm thin body shell. The Grand Memo is a 5.7-inch smartphone/tablet hybrid.

ZTE's 85.7 percent surge in first-quarter sales compelled research firm Strategy Analytics to name it the fastest-growing US smartphone vendor of the past year. ITG Market Research ranked the Shenzhen-based maker of telecommunications gear the third-largest US smartphone maker, with 17 percent of the nation's prepaid handset market, trailing only South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co and California's Apple Inc.

Almost all of ZTE's 18 US-released phones have gone to the pre-paid, or pay-as-you-talk market, where users can top off their balance at any time using a credit card, paying through an ATM, or buying a refill card, among other methods.

A demand for cheaper wine

There is growing demand for less expensive wine in China, according to a report.

In the first quarter of 2013, 69 percent of 1,024 people surveyed aged between 18 and 50 in China said they usually spent less than 200 yuan ($33) on imported wine for a casual occasion, according to Wine Intelligence, a London-based consulting firm specializing in the wine business.

"There is a growing trend of drinking wine for pleasure rather than buying it primarily as a gift or serving it at banquets as a status symbol and, along with this growth in more casual drinking, there's also a higher demand for wine at more affordable price points," said Maria Troein, China country manager of Wine Intelligence.

There is no industry definition for entry-level wine or affordable wine. However, industry insiders said wine priced below 200 yuan could be defined as entry-level. (Photo 2)

Tuesday_________________ June 4

Chinese again No 1 in global shopping

For the third consecutive year Chinese tourists ranked first in the global shopping market, with an average of $1,139 per trip, according to a report.

That spending is 70 percent higher than the global average, according to the Hurun Report's Chinese Luxury Traveler White Paper 2013.

China's super-rich made fewer overseas trips in 2012 - on average, 3.4 journeys compared with 4.2 in 2011, the report by the Hurun Report in association with International Luxury Travel Market Asia said.

Jiang Yiyi, director of the Chinese Tourism Academy's International Tourism Development Institute, said the fact that luxury brands cost about 30 to 70 percent more if bought in China compared with overseas encourages Chinese to spend more outside the country.

Economic growth may have slowed in May

China's economic growth may have slowed in May to an eight-month low.

Expansion of non-manufacturing industries slowed as indicated by a purchasing managers' index of 54.3, down from 54.5 in April. The figures were reported by the National Bureau of Statistics and the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing.

HSBC Holdings PLC said its manufacturing PMI for May stood at 49.2, an eight-month low and down from 50.4 in April. Differences between the official and HSBC PMI data were seen mainly because of the different sample sizes.

Lian Ping, chief economist at the Bank of Communications, said weaker economic growth is the "necessary price" paid for structural reform. "We are not pessimistic, although it shows weaker development momentum," Lian said.

Wednesday__________ June 5

US-China to be the biggest trade partners

China and the US will probably become each other's largest trade partner by 2022, according to reports.

The report - US-China Economic Relations in the Next 10 Years: Toward Deeper Engagement and Mutual Benefit - by the China-US Exchange Foundation strongly suggests that the world's top two economies deepen their cooperation over the next decade.

The report also said that by 2022 China will become the largest importer in the world, with imports from the US expected to surpass $530 billion, three times the current figure. By then, the value of China's exports to the US is expected to grow to $805 billion, according to the report. (Photo 4)

Movies lead in media spending

Chinese consumers' passion for films continues to drive the country's overall growth in entertainment and media spending, according to a report by PwC.

This will lead to an 8 percent overall spending growth in the sector annually for the next five years, with spending in the film industry growing by 15 percent, the professional service company said in its Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2013-17.

China overtook Japan to become the world's second-biggest theatrical market in 2012, seeing $2.66 billion in box-office revenue.

An ambitious cinema building program is driving the box-office boom - each day nine new screens open on the Chinese mainland. The number of screens on the mainland has increased 10-fold in the past 10 years, from fewer than 1,300 in 2002 to more than 13,100 at the end of 2012.

Thursday__________________ June 6

EU wine imports being investigated

China is investigating European Union wine imports, and the Ministry of Commerce said the probe isn't a "retaliatory measure" for the bloc's duties on Chinese solar products.

On Tuesday, the EU announced provisional anti-dumping duties on imports of solar panels, cells and wafers from China following a nine-month investigation. China opposes the EU's 11.8 percent tariffs on the country's solar panel products, officials said.

China's wine imports rose by 8.9 percent to 430 million liters in 2012, according to the General Administration of Customs. The imports were valued at about $2.57 billion. The EU accounted for more than two-thirds of the imports, with France being the biggest export country.

Goldman Sachs joins funding for Alibaba

New York-based Goldman Sachs Group Inc has pledged a $500 million loan as part of a group of banks lending $8 billion to Chinese Internet giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, according to various reports citing anonymous sources.

Alibaba is seeking funds for debt-refinancing and other purposes, which likely include financing for a widely anticipated initial public offering. Banks are eager to underwrite an Alibaba IPO, from which they could reap tens of millions of dollars in fees.

Alibaba could be valued at $50 billion to $100 billion and might launch an IPO as soon as this year's fourth quarter but more likely during the first half of 2014, the Wall Street Journal reported.

While there are expectations for a successful summit meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Barack Obama, there also are great expectations for Shin Shin. The giant panda on loan from China to Tokyo's Ueno Zoo is showing signs of being pregnant, the zoo said. Last year, Shin Shin gave birth on July 5, the first time in 24 years that the zoo had a baby panda, but the cub died of pneumonia six days later. AFP

(China Daily USA 06/07/2013 page20)