China Govt: Foreign Ppty Invest Ctrls Curbing Speculation
-China's foreign exchange regulator said Tuesday measures to control speculative foreign investment in the domestic property market have "played an active role" in resolving the problem.
Local divisions of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange have done a good job of implementing the measures introduced earlier this year, said SAFE director Hu Xiaolian in a statement on the agency's Web site.
The foreign property investment rules, introduced in July, reduce the amount that big foreign property buyers can borrow by requiring them to provide at least 50% of the capital up front for property investments of $10 million or more, up from 35% of the total now. The rules also limit who is allowed to buy an apartment to overseas nationals who live in China.
The measures are part of a broader effort to clamp down on "hot-money" inflows that have contributed to soaring real estate prices and boosted China's foreign exchange reserves, which at around $1 billion are the world's largest.
The inflows have also put Beijing in a bind domestically, pumping liquidity into the economy and feeding strong fixed-asset investment growth.
"Promoting equilibrium in China's balance of payments remains a relatively big challenge," SAFE's Hu said in the statement.
Of the 170,000 firms licensed to accept foreign currency in transactions, 5,300 of those companies still need to be closely monitored because of the large gap between their trade levels and foreign exchange activities, she said.
China's trade surplus has continued to surge, hitting a record $23.83 billion in October.
China's major trading partners, led by the U.S., have called on China to allow its currency, the yuan, to rise faster to reduce the massive trade surplus, which is projected to exceed $150 billion for full-year 2006.
The World Bank, in its quarterly update issued Tuesday, said the trade surplus is China's "main short-term macro imbalance."
限制外资炒房政策奏效
中国国家外汇管理局(State Administration of Foreign Exchange)周二表示，限制外资投机国内房地产市场的外汇管理措施初见成效。
国家外汇管理局局长胡晓炼在该局网站发布的一份公告中称，地方外汇管理部门很好地执行了今年早些时候制定的上述措施。
7月份出台的抑制外商房地产投资的规定降低了大型外商房地产购买者能够获得的贷款金额。新规定要求，外商设立房地产企业投资总额超过1,000万美元（含1,000万美元）的，注册资本不得低于投资总额的50%。新规定还对在中国居住的海外人士在中国境内购买房屋进行了限制。
这是中国政府为抑制热钱流入所采取的众多措施之一。热钱流入导致房地产价格大幅上扬，并扩大了中国的外汇储备。目前中国的外汇储备为1万亿美元左右，居世界第一位。
热钱流入也增加了市场流动资金，并为固定资产投资强劲增长提供了支持，令政府决策困难。
胡晓炼在公告中表示，当前促进国际收支平衡仍面临较大挑战。
她说，目前17万多家有出口收汇业务企业，被列入关注企业的有5,300多家，因为这些企业的进出口贸易和与之相关的外汇收支活动差距较大。
中国贸易顺差持续飙升，10月份创出238.3亿美元的月度纪录新高。
以美国为首的中国主要贸易伙伴一直要求中国允许人民币加快升值，减少巨额贸易顺差。中国2006年全年贸易顺差料将超过1,500亿美元。
世界银行(World Bank)在周二发布的季度报告中称，贸易顺差是中国面临的主要短期宏观失衡问题。
