<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=452><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Published September 19, 2009
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>China economy back, US still ails
No 'jobless recovery' in China, as factories reopen and economy surges 14.9% in Q2
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(Wusi, China)
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</TD></TR><TR class=caption><TD>HIRING AGAIN
Job seekers being interviewed at a job fair in the southern city of Shenzhen on Wednesday</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>JUST eight months ago, thousands of Chinese workers rioted outside factories closed by the global downturn. Now many of those plants have been reopened and are hiring again.
Some executives are even struggling to find enough temporary staff to fill Christmas orders.
The image of laid-off workers here returning to jobs stands in sharp contrast to the United States - where, even as the economy shows signs of improvement, the unemployment rate continues to march towards double digits.
The Chinese government says unemployment is falling, and even the hardest-hit factories - those depending on exports to the US and Europe - are starting to rehire workers. No one here is talking about a jobless recovery.
Even the real estate market is picking up. For instance, in this industrial town 145km from Shanghai, prospective investors lined up one recent Saturday to buy apartments in the still-unfinished Rose Avenue complex. Many of them slept outside the sales office all night.
'The whole country's economy is back on track,' said Shi Yingyi, a 34-year-old housewife who joined the throng. 'I feel more confident now.'
The confidence stems from China's three-pronged effort: a combination of stimulus, liberal bank lending, and broad government support for exports.
The Chinese central bank said the country's economy surged at an annualised rate of 14.9 per cent in the second quarter; the US economy shrank at an annual rate of one per cent in that period.
China has been able to disburse its stimulus much faster, turning it into new rail lines and highways.
China's Finance Ministry announced in late June that half the US$173 billion in central government spending had already been allocated to specific projects. The White House said in early July that a quarter of the spending authority and tax cuts in the US$789 billion American stimulus had been allocated or used.
But even more of an impetus to China's recovery, economists say, are two other government efforts that are paying big dividends: looser lending, and export supports.
The state-controlled banking system here - which breezed through the global financial crisis with minimal losses - unleashed US$1.2 trillion in extra lending to Chinese consumers and businesses in the first seven months of this year. That money is financing everything from a boom in car sales, up 82 per cent in August from a year earlier, to frenzied factory construction. -- NYT
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</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>China economy back, US still ails
No 'jobless recovery' in China, as factories reopen and economy surges 14.9% in Q2
<TABLE class=storyLinks border=0 cellSpacing=4 cellPadding=1 width=136 align=right><TBODY><TR class=font10><TD width=20 align=right>
</TD><TD>Email this article</TD></TR><TR class=font10><TD width=20 align=right>
</TD><TD>Print article </TD></TR><TR class=font10><TD width=20 align=right>
</TD><TD>Feedback</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>(Wusi, China)
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</TD></TR><TR class=caption><TD>HIRING AGAINJob seekers being interviewed at a job fair in the southern city of Shenzhen on Wednesday</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>JUST eight months ago, thousands of Chinese workers rioted outside factories closed by the global downturn. Now many of those plants have been reopened and are hiring again.
Some executives are even struggling to find enough temporary staff to fill Christmas orders.
The image of laid-off workers here returning to jobs stands in sharp contrast to the United States - where, even as the economy shows signs of improvement, the unemployment rate continues to march towards double digits.
The Chinese government says unemployment is falling, and even the hardest-hit factories - those depending on exports to the US and Europe - are starting to rehire workers. No one here is talking about a jobless recovery.
Even the real estate market is picking up. For instance, in this industrial town 145km from Shanghai, prospective investors lined up one recent Saturday to buy apartments in the still-unfinished Rose Avenue complex. Many of them slept outside the sales office all night.
'The whole country's economy is back on track,' said Shi Yingyi, a 34-year-old housewife who joined the throng. 'I feel more confident now.'
The confidence stems from China's three-pronged effort: a combination of stimulus, liberal bank lending, and broad government support for exports.
The Chinese central bank said the country's economy surged at an annualised rate of 14.9 per cent in the second quarter; the US economy shrank at an annual rate of one per cent in that period.
China has been able to disburse its stimulus much faster, turning it into new rail lines and highways.
China's Finance Ministry announced in late June that half the US$173 billion in central government spending had already been allocated to specific projects. The White House said in early July that a quarter of the spending authority and tax cuts in the US$789 billion American stimulus had been allocated or used.
But even more of an impetus to China's recovery, economists say, are two other government efforts that are paying big dividends: looser lending, and export supports.
The state-controlled banking system here - which breezed through the global financial crisis with minimal losses - unleashed US$1.2 trillion in extra lending to Chinese consumers and businesses in the first seven months of this year. That money is financing everything from a boom in car sales, up 82 per cent in August from a year earlier, to frenzied factory construction. -- NYT
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