BizChina

China's business climate index, a major measurement of macro-economic outlook, rose 6.2 points in the fourth quarter from the previous quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Friday.

The quarterly business climate index climbed from 124.4 in the third quarter to 130.6 in the fourth quarter, the NBS said.

The index ranges from zero to 200. A reading above 100 shows economic expansion, while a reading below 100 indicates contraction. The survey began in 1998.

The index for the industrial sector rose 7.6 points to 128.1 in he fourth quarter. For the first time since 2008, all the industrial sectors reported business climate index above 100, which indicated expansion, said the NBS.

China has surpassed Germany to be the biggest exporting country of the year 2009, according to the website of China's Ministry of Commerce.

Exports from China totaled 957 billion yuan ($140 billion) from January to October last year, while Germany lagged behind with 917 billion yuan ($134 billion).

The trading of the final two months of the year wasn't believed to make a difference, according to a Geneva-based global trade service company, cited by the Wall Street Journal.

Germany's export was reportedly affected by the global financial crisis and recovered slowly. The Federation of German Industries (BDI) predicted that its export would increase by 4 percent this year and needs another four years to fully recover.
 

As a solid, tangible, intrinsically valuable store of wealth, gold will be increasingly popular in China with the nation soon set to surpass India as the biggest consumer, the China Daily reported Wednesday.

China is already the largest gold producer in the world with an output of around 282.504 tons in the first 11 months of 2009. The figure represents a 14.6 percent increase over the same period in 2008, said the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on its website Tuesday.

Miners expanded output last year after bullion prices soared to record highs, with production alone reaching 27.952 tons, the newspaper quoted the ministry as saying.

According to the China Gold Association (CGA), the estimated demand for gold in the country was 450 tons in 2009, up 13.8 percent from 395.6 tons in 2008.

The Chinese government will continue encouraging outbound investment while attracting foreign investment in 2010 for "stable and relatively fast" growth of the country's economy, a government official has said.

Outbound investment, or "go-global" strategy, should aim at making use of overseas resources, market and advanced technologies, so as to help facilitate development of China's domestic economy, Zhang Xiaoqiang, vice minister in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission, said in the speech posted on the commission's website Tuesday.

The remarks were made at a conference held in Beijing on foreign investment on Dec. 11, but was not released until Tuesday.

In the first three quarters of 2009, China saw its investment overseas at 32.87 billion U.S. dollars, up 0.5 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Commerce (MOC).