July property inflation rises to 7.5%

THE country’s urban property prices rose 7.5 percent in July from a year earlier, compared with a 7.1 percent rise in June, official figures showed yesterday.

Average property prices across 70 cities rose 1.2 percent in July from June, the National Development and Reform Commission, the top economic planning agency, said in a report on its Web site.

Trade surplus may hit US$275b

CHINA’S trade surplus may swell this year to US$275 billion from US$177.5 billion in 2006, according to the State Information Center.

Fan Jianping, head of the center’s economic forecasting department, said the surplus would rise mainly because of strong global demand. In an article in the Shanghai Securities News, Fan attributed the 83 percent rise in the surplus, to US$112.5 billion in the first six months, to front-loading of exports ahead of expected tax changes and to an inadequate pace of yuan appreciation. For the full year, he forecast that exports would rise 26 percent to US$1.22 trillion, with imports up 19.5 percent to US$946 billion.

Standard Chartered launches new product

STANDARD Chartered has become the latest foreign bank to offer insurance products in China.

Standard Chartered announced the launch of bancassurance (banca) business in Shenzhen on Wednesday. The first batch of Banca products includes Annuity Endowment and Whole Life Investment-Linked insurance plans, according to the bank. Christine Ip, country head of consumer banking of Standard Chartered Bank (China) Ltd., said Bancassurance would become “an important element for our growth in China.” Earlier this month, Citibank also launched a bancassurance product in Shenzhen.