HOME>NEWS CENTER>The 4th Board of Directors of IFF (2018-2023)
IFF Newsletter Issue 111
TIME：2024-02-22
From the Editor
China’s tourism revenues during the Spring Festival holiday ending on Saturday jumped 47.3% from last year, surpassing 2019 levels, official data showed. China’s box office during the Lunar New Year holiday hit a record high of 8.02 billion yuan, according to data from the China Film Administration. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) kept the rate on 500 billion yuan worth of one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) loans to some financial institutions unchanged at 2.5%.
China’s domestic manufactured jet C919 by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China made its first trip outside of China. US Federal Reserve officials were wary of cutting interest rates too quickly, according to the minutes of its meeting on Jan. 30-31. Australia’s unemployment reached a two year high in January, official data showed.
IFF meets China International Development Cooperation Agency in Beijing
The International Finance Forum Executive (IFF) Vice President Lin Jianhai met with Zhao Fengtao, Vice Chairperson of the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) in Beijing on Wednesday. IFF Secretary General and Chief Executive Zhang Jizhong and Deputy Director-General Lei Pili of the CIDCA’s department of international cooperation also joined the meeting.
The two sides held detailed discussion on potential cooperation. Lin said as an independent, non-profit, non-governmental international organisation, IFF is willing to collaborate with CIDCA in areas like development financing, green finance, digital finance and human resources training.
Zhao expressed hope for IFF to use its experience in global finance governance and global development financing to further the Global Development Initiative cooperation so as to help achieve sustainable development goals.
Spring Festival tourism revenues surpass pre-COVID levels
China’s tourism revenues during the Spring Festival holiday ending on Saturday jumped 47.3% from last year, surpassing 2019 levels, official data showed.
Domestic tourism spending rose 47.3% to 632.7 billion yuan from the same holiday period last year, data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism showed. The spending rose 7.7% compared to the 2019 Lunar New year holiday.
The number of domestic trips, totaling 474 million, increased 34.3% from a year ago and 19% from the same holiday in 2019.
This year the Lunar New Year holiday lasted eight days, one day more than that in 2019.
China’s box office during the Lunar New Year hits record high
China’s box office during the Lunar New Year holiday hit a record high of 8.02 billion yuan, data from the China Film Administration showed.
The number of people went to the cinema reached a record of 163 million during the holiday.
Domestic comedy film “YOLO” topped the box office.
China keeps key policy rate unchanged
China’s central bank has left a key policy rate unchanged on Sunday.
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) kept the rate on 500 billion yuan worth of one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) loans to some financial institutions unchanged at 2.5%.
The move was to maintain banking system liquidity reasonably ample, the central bank said in an online statement.
Lunar New Year spending in Hainan hits record
Holiday spending on duty-free goods in Hainan province reached a record of 2.49 billion yuan during the eight-day Lunar New Year holiday, data from Haikou Customs showed.
The spending rose 60% from that of last year.
Between Feb.10 and 17, the number of customers reached more than 297,000, each spending an average of 8,358 yuan on duty-free goods.
China’s automobile exports jumped 47.4% in January from a year earlier, according to industry data.
China exported 443,000 vehicles in January, data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers showed.
In January, China’s new-energy vehicle (NEVs) exports rose 21.7% from a year earlier to 101,000 units, the data showed.
Meanwhile China exported 369,000 passenger vehicles last month, up 47.5% year on year.
China’s natural gas consumption rose 7.6% in 2023 from the previous year, official data showed.
In December alone, consumption of natural gas increased 9.5% from a year earlier, data from the National Development and Reform Commission showed.
Newsletter
International News
China’s domestic manufactured jet C919 by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China made its first trip outside of China.
The C919 made a fly-by at the Singapore Airshow on Sunday.
The plane is certified within China and the first four C919s began flying with China Eastern Airlines last year.
US Federal Reserve officials were wary of cutting interest rates too quickly, according to the minutes of its meeting on Jan. 30-31.
"Most participants noted the risks of moving too quickly to ease the stance of policy," and only a couple “pointed to downside risks to the economy associated with maintaining an overly restrictive stance for too long," according to the minutes released on Wednesday.
Some of the Fed officials noted the risk that progress toward price stability could stall, particularly if aggregate demand strengthened.
Australia’s unemployment reached a two year high in January, official data showed.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 4.1% in January, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed.
The rate was the highest since January 2022, according to Bjorn Jarvis ABS head of labour statistics.
“While there were more unemployed people in January, there were also more unemployed people who were expecting to start a job in the next four weeks,” Jarvis said.
Singapore’s exports rose 16.8% in January from a year earlier, official data showed.
Non-oil domestic exports amounted to S$15.5 billion last month.
The non-oil domestic exports grew 2.3% in January on a month-on-month seasonally adjusted basis.
German economy is set to keep shrinking in the first three months of 2024, according to the country’s central bank Bundesbank.
In its monthly report released on Monday, the central bank said stress factors would probably remain in the first quarter.
low order intake, dampened investment and unfavorable weather conditions could result in economic decline according to the report.
The United Nations called for greater collaboration to achieve sustainable development goals in the 11th Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development on Tuesday.
Today’s multilateral arrangements – global and regional organizations and major development banks – are “not up to the job” of helping countries achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said on Tuesday.
Speaking at the gathering in Bangkok, Mohammed stressed the importance of international cooperation, pointing out that the existing multilateral arrangements were inadequate for the task at hand.
