Xiang Songzuo, chief economist of state-owned ABC, says China’s next raft of reforms – from retooling state-owned enterprises to tackling local government debt burdens and environmental challenges – will involve a disruptive shift in the political system.

AS Watson under strategic review; IPO would be Asia’s biggest in three years

Swap agreement reflects growing trade; London has competitive advantage

The Shanghai free-trade zone (FTZ), China’s grand experiment with liberalizing interest rates and opening its capital account, has only a short window of opportunity to convince the markets that the Communist Party is serious about reform.

Demand for sophisticated cash management services in China is rising as the authorities press for greater business efficiency at home and Chinese corporates expand their foreign operations. Renminbi liberalization is another driver.

London should be wary of the Duchy’s ambitions to become Europe’s RMB hub.

High hopes for sweeping reform; Li says country is at crucial juncture

The new free-trade zone in Shanghai is much more likely to invigorate Hong Kong as a financial sector than threaten it.

On September 3, Beijing announced a 3% tax on coal imports with low calorific value. Some market analysts are concerned that the tax might have a negative impact on Indonesian exports of thermal coal as the levy could remove any price advantages. Between January and July this year, Indonesia accounted for 97% of China’s lignite imports.

As China’s appetite for commodities appears to be fading, demand for Indonesian coal could also fall, putting the export economy under stress. Mining company Adaro explains why the future is still bright.

The emerging market sell-off since May is just the start of a painful multi-year adjustment process – and China has blazed a trail for the next downturn. Capital abundance, deflationary pressures and imbalanced global demand continue to drive the 15-year cycle of credit booms and busts.

The Chinese economy is growing ever more slowly – probably slipping even faster than officially admitted, and from a base whose size is possibly exaggerated too. In the midst of this, the orthodox banking sector is doing unorthodox things on a grand scale, while being undermined and bypassed by an even more unorthodox grey financial sector.

State-owned companies have, until now, set the tone in China. But as economic growth slows and state-driven capital market activity founders, banks are hunting for business from China’s privately owned, ambitious enterprises.

Banks everywhere hire well-connected employees as standard practice. Why should Hong Kong so grate with US regulators?

Risk-control measures in place; further step in economic liberalization.

Emerging market (EM) currencies are expected to continue to expand their share of the $5.3 trillion-a-day global forex market despite the turmoil, with China’s RMB leading the charge.

The preferred method for playing Chinese credit markets remains the dim sum bond market, say analysts, as China’s expansion of access to its onshore market is met with a cool reception by foreign investors.

The new head of the International Finance Corporation, Jin-Yong Cai, tells Euromoney about the need for the World Bank’s private-sector arm to take more risks and be more activist in developing policy ideas in such areas as infrastructure development and poverty reduction.

China’s economy is embarking on a new and critical phase of development as the country attempts to navigate its way beyond growth for growth’s sake to create an economy that serves the needs of its people.

Despite the strides China is making in the development of its $2.7 trillion government bond market, it remains structurally inefficient, thanks to meagre trading volume in an asset class strangled by the country’s fixed interest rate regime. Calls are growing for greater efforts to develop the government and corporate bond market structure in a bid to boost the efficiency of savings and non-bank financing.

The Euromoney China gold investors survey was open from June 4 to July 20. All responses were collected online from investors in gold and gold-backed products from the People’s Republic of China. Euromoney received 624 responses, which were weighted to reflect the size and per capita GDP of each province: Respondents were asked to name banks whose gold investment services they used, which were given the weightings: