China investment in assets slows in Nov.

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-16 20:41

SHANGHAI, China -- China's domestic investment in assets grew by 26.8 percent in the first 11 months of the year over a year earlier, cooling as companies crimped spending on real estate and factories.

Migrant workers carries their bags as they arrive the Beijing Railway Station, in Beijing, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2008. World Bank President Robert Zoellick warned Monday that 2009 will prove to be a 'very difficult' year for China and the world amid the financial downturn, but said the Chinese government's efforts to shore up the country's own economy will help aid global stability. [Agencies]

The January-November figure, released Tuesday by the National Bureau of Statistics, compared with a 27.2 percent increase in the first 10 months of the year.

"We expect lower investment in the near term as the export sector grapples with weaker demand and property developers focus on clearing their existing inventories," said a report by Jing Ulrich, JP Morgan & Co.'s chairwoman for China equities.

However, a 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) government spending package and policies aimed at spurring more lending by the banks should contribute to a rebound in investment by next spring, Ulrich said.

Investment in property, factory equipment and other assets accounts for about one-third of China's economic growth.

Exports, another key driver for growth, fell in November for the first time in seven years. The slump in overseas demand is prompting factories to lay off workers and, in some cases, suspend production.

Until recently, southern China's Guangdong was hardest hit. But Shanghai, China's commercial capital, reported Tuesday that its exports fell by 2.4 percent in November from the year before, while imports sank by 22.8 percent. It was the biggest monthly fall in foreign trade since 2001, the government said.

Exports through Shanghai to the United States dropped 8.2 percent, the city's customs office said.

Shanghai accounts for nearly one-quarter of China's foreign trade, and two-thirds of that trade involves foreign-invested companies, the report said.

The government also reported Monday that profits at major state-owned corporations fell by 26 percent in the first 11 months of the year, compared with a year earlier, although revenues rose 20 percent.

Much of the profit decline came from the energy sector, where refiners suffered massive losses earlier in the year when global crude oil prices surged well beyond state-controlled oil product prices.

The companies face an "unprecedented grim situation," said Li Rongrong, the chairman of the Chinese agency in charge of big state corporations, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

Highlighting Beijing's sense of urgency, the Standing Committee of China's legislature agreed Monday to allow the Ministry of Finance to move ahead with spending before the central budget is reviewed and approved during the National People's Congress's annual session in March, Xinhua said.

The report did not say how much money would be disbursed in advance of budgetary approval.