Overseas investors buy more Chinese bonds

Overseas investors raised their holdings of Chinese bonds for the 26th month in a row in January, fueled by faster-than-expected economic recovery and a firming yuan, data from the China Central Depository & Clearing Co Ltd showed.

Overseas investors held a total of 3.06 trillion yuan (US$473.6 billion) of Chinese bonds in January, surging 62.09% from the same period last year. The volume marked an increase of 5.96% from the end of 2020. Market transactions were also robust, with trading volumes amounting to 588.3 billion yuan last month.

The growing appetite among global investors since 2020 stemmed from China’s stable economic recovery, widening spread of Chinese 10-year government bonds over their US counterparts, as well as a firming yuan, according to Zheng Kuifang, an analyst with the China Construction Bank.

With a strong rebound in the fourth quarter, China’s economy expanded 2.3% in 2020, becoming the only major economy to achieve positive growth in the pandemic-ravaged year.

Although the yield of 10-year United States government bonds had gradually ticked up and the yuan’s exchange rate against the US dollar stabilized, analysts expect the rush of buying into China’s bond market to extend into 2021 as the share of Chinese bonds in global asset allocation remained low.

Benchmark deposit rate

The People’s Bank of China (PBoC), the country’s central bank, said the benchmark deposit interest rates will be retained for the long term.

In a statement released after a teleconference on deposit management, the PBoC stressed the externalities of deposit rate pricing, noting that the competition order in the deposit market is closely related to the vital interests of the people.

Positive results have been yielded after the PBoC enhanced deposit management in recent years by pushing the self-discipline mechanism for market interest rate pricing, as well as regulating the innovative deposit products.

The PBoC urged further efforts to improve deposit management, strengthen the regulation of non-standard innovative deposit products and maintain the competition order in the deposit market. 

CPTPP

China is ready to enhance technical communication and exchanges with members of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) on issues regarding joining the pact, the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) said Thursday.

The country is researching matters related to it joining the CPTPP, said MoC spokesman Gao Feng.

Gao made the remarks when asked by reporters about when China would apply for membership after the United Kingdom announced last week that it will formally apply to join the trans-Pacific bloc of countries, with negotiations set to start this year.

The CPTPP, which took effect on December 30, 2018, is a trade agreement between 11 countries – Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. Their aggregate gross domestic product accounts for 13% of the global economy.

Company news

Huawei founder and chief executive Ren Zhengfei on Wednesday apologized for applying for trademarks in the name of the company for his youngest daughter Annabel Yao. However, Ren has not taken any further action after the apology. 

Data service company Tianyancha showed that Huawei on January 25 applied for a total of 90 trademarks, including “Yao Anna,” “Yao Siwei,” “AnnalbelYao,” “YAOANNA” and “YAOSIWEI,” covering a wide range of clothing accessories, food, jewelry, machinery and equipment and other fields. 

“Some companies or individuals would maliciously step in the registration of trademarks related to Annabel Yao, so we have no choice but to do it first,” according to a note released internally to Huawei employees.

Ren asked Huawei’s Intellectual Property Department to apply for Yao’s trademarks while Yao will pay for the registration fees later when she has her own company, the note said.

The stories were compiled by Nadeem Xu and KoKo and first published at ATimesCN.com.