China In-Focus – Shares fall; BRI spending reduced in H1; Central bank assures confidentiality in using digital yuan
RIYADH: Shares in China were up for a third straight session on Monday as concerns over the COVID-19 flare-up and a global slowdown ended.
The blue-chip CSI300 fell 0.6 percent to 4,212.64, while the Shanghai Composite fell 0.6 percent to 3,250.39.
The Hang Seng index ended 0.2 per cent lower at 20,562.94, while the China Enterprises index ended 0.4 per cent lower at 7,077.09.
BRI spends down in the first half
China’s finance and investment spending in countries under the Belt and Road Initiative fell slightly in the first half of this year from a year ago, with no new coal projects and investments in Russia, Egypt and Sri Lanka going to zero, new research shows. walked.
Saudi Arabia was the largest recipient of Chinese investment with about $5.5 billion, according to the Shanghai-based Green Finance and Development Center in research published on Sunday.
GFDC said total financing and investments for the period stood at $28.4 billion, up from $29.6 billion a year earlier, bringing total cumulative BRI spending from 2013 to $932 billion.
President Xi Jinping launched the BRI in 2013 with the aim of harnessing China’s strengths in financing and building infrastructure to “build a broader community of common interests” across Asia, Africa and Latin America.
China vows privacy, information security in using digital yuan
China will fully respect privacy and protect personal information in using the digital yuan, state media quoted a senior central bank official as saying on Sunday, as Beijing encourages greater adoption of e-CNY. Is.
Limited anonymity is a key feature of the digital yuan, said Mu Changchun, director general of the central bank’s Digital Currency Research Institute, noting that it ensures fair anonymous transactions.
“It prevents illegal activities including money laundering, terrorist financing and tax evasion, and upholds the need for financial security,” the Securities Times quoted Mu in a forum.
The People’s Bank of China is a leader in developing and issuing a central bank digital currency, which will be a traceable replacement for notes and coins in the case of e-CNY.
Other central banks are considering developing CBDCs to modernize their financial systems, remove competition from cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, and accelerate domestic and international payments.
China’s efforts are among the most advanced globally, and the country has been running various test and pilot schemes of different payment scenarios in recent years.
Mu also said that e-CNY, which is the digital version of the fiat currency issued by the PBOC, can be used to buy anything that can be bought with banknotes and coins.
“Banknotes and coins can buy gold and convert foreign currency, so does e-CNY,” he said.
(with input from Reuters)