Food for thoughts
China’s per-capita dining expenditure this year is 100 times that of the year 1978, and Guangzhou citizens spend most on dining among all Chinese, according to official statistics.
The rise in food spending was mainly driven up by the increase in the disposable income of China’s urban and rural dwellers, which increased 7.7 percent and 6.8 percent year-on-year, respectively, in 2004.
Personally, I feel the increase is also driven up by the inflation as well.
The trade surplus is getting bigger
China’s trade surplus will probably widen to $90 billion this year from $32 billion in 2004 because of surging exports from the world’s biggest maker of mobile phones, clothes and steel, the Ministry of Commerce said.
RMB is going up
What with the huge surplus, it’s understandable that Chinese currency, RMB, is going up. However, unlike most of the free currency trade market around the world, the Chinese government has the ultimate control on its currency. Under the pressure of the US administration because of Chinese huge surplus against the US, the Chinese government is increasing its currency value bit by bit.