FOREIGN direct investment in the Chinese mainland kept steady growth last year on the back of strong investment in the service industry. FDI rose 4.1 percent year on year to 813 billion yuan (US$118 billion) in 2016, the Ministry of Commerce said in an online statement. Growth slowed from the 6.4 percent gain in 2015. In December alone, the FDI inflow went up 5.7 percent. Foreign investment in the service industry rose 8.3 percent year on year to 572 billion yuan and accounted for 70.3

THE Chinese economy is likely to hit bottom in 2017 as several factors will combine to support the bottoming process, a Chinese economist said Saturday. If investment, supply-side structural reforms and the fostering of new growth momentum achieve desired results, there is a high probability that the economy may bottom this year, said Wang Yiming, deputy director of the development research center of the State Council. On the demand side, manufacturing investment is on the up, while infras

Prices held the present levels on the cotton market on Saturday in the process of modest trading activity, dealers said. The official spot rate was unchanged at Rs 6375, dealers said. In Sindh, seed cotton prices were at Rs 3000-3300, they said. In Punjab, phutti rates stayed put at Rs 3200 and Rs 3550, as per 40 kg, they added. In the ready session, around 7,000 bales of cotton changed hands between Rss 6500 and Rs 6700, they said Some brokers said that a kind of cautious business seen on th

Cotton importers are in a fix after Indian exporters started backing out on deals negotiated last year due to pricing issue. Sources said some 200,000 bales contracted in Oct-Nov 2016 are currently being either renegotiated or would be cancelled by Indian exporters. Consequently Pakistani spinners may incur losses because prices agreed earlier had to be revised up because global cotton prices have risen. India has been a traditional supplier of cotton to Pakistan and last year around

Garment exports to Germany, the second largest export destination for Bangladeshi apparel after the US, will continue to grow in future due to the high quality of products and competitive prices, German traders said. As a member of the EU, Germany will continue its duty privilege for Bangladesh, said Manfred Junkert, deputy general manager of the Confederation of the German Textile and Fashion Industry, at a press conference on the sidelines of the Heimtextil fair in Frankfurt, Germany on Thu

The Government of India will soon set up a hosiery cluster at Sirsa and a carpet cluster at Panipat in Haryana, said Union textiles minister Smriti Irani. She also said that the government will provide its support for establishing a trade facilitation centre and encourage major design initiative to help the state have a huge influx into the industry. The hosiery cluster in the Sirsa district of Haryana will help create more employment opportunities, said Irani at the Pravasi Haryana Diwas he

The cotton market remained steady on Wednesday as spinners generally preferred to buy domestic stocks. Earlier, most spinners were holding their hopes to import cotton from India. The Karachi Cotton Association’s spot rates were steady at overnight level. Brokers said that Indian cotton prices have risen by around five US cents from 76 to 81 cents a pound on the expectation of huge imports by spinners from Pakistan and smaller than anticipated crop earlier. Meanwhile, ginners claim tha

The World Bank predicts a slight recovery of the global economy in the coming years amid rallying oil and commodity prices and the expansion of emerging markets and developing economies. In its “Global Economic Prospects” report, the World Bank says global economy will grow 2.7% this year and 2.9% next year, better than last year’s 2.3%. The World Bank report says emerging markets and developing economies will grow 4.2% in 2017 and 4.7% in 2018, compared with 3.4% last year. These econo

CHINA has strictly followed WTO rules and fulfilled its commitments in the 15 years since its accession to the global trade body, an official said yesterday in response to concerns raised in a US report on Monday. The US Trade Representative filed the annual report on China’s WTO compliance to the US Congress on Monday. The report said China has not fulfilled some of its WTO commitments. The report’s views of problems in Sino-US trade and investment, as well as the roots of those issues, a

Bangladeshi companies received positive response from international retailers at the annual Heimtextil fair, the world's largest home textile exhibition, currently taking place in Frankfurt, Germany. A total of 23 home textile companies from Bangladesh are participating in the four-day fair that began on Tuesday. Messe Frankfurt, one of the largest trade fair companies in the world, has been organising the event since 1971. “The response from buyers is very positive. Most of our old custom