
China's consumer prices extend decline for fourth month in May
BEIJING, June 9 (Reuters) - China's consumer prices fell for a fourth straight month in May while producer deflation deepened, as the economy faces headwinds from trade tensions and a prolonged housing downturn.
The consumer price index dipped 0.1% last month from a year earlier, versus a 0.1% drop in April, National Bureau of Statistics data showed on Monday, slightly better than a Reuters poll forecast of a 0.2% decline.
CPI slid 0.2% on a monthly basis, compared with a 0.1% increase in April, and matched economists' predictions of a 0.2% decline.
The producer price index was down 3.3% in May from a year earlier, worse than a 2.7% decline in April and the deepest contraction in 22 months. That compared with an estimated 3.2% fall in a Reuters poll.
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Telegraph
14 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Stocks rally ahead of US-China trade talks in London
Stock markets jumped in Asia ahead of US-China trade talks due to get under way in Britain today. Shares were up from Hong Kong to Tokyo following a call late last week between US president Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Representatives from the world's two largest economies are due to meet at a still undisclosed location in London in an attempt to revive a preliminary trade agreement reached in Geneva last month. The US delegation will be led by treasury secretary Scott Bessent, commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and US trade representative Jamieson Greer. The Chinese contingent will be helmed by vice premier He Lifeng. Relations soured earlier this month after President Trump accused China of violating the terms of the deal. Beijing accused Washington of doing the same. Latest updates 09 June 2025 8:15am 8:15AM Government borrowing costs fall amid trade hopes The cost of government borrowing edged lower in Britain ahead of the talks between top US and Chinese trade officials in London. The yield on 10-year UK gilts – a benchmark for the cost of servicing the national debt – declined two basis points to 4.62pc on bond markets. Yields were also lower across the eurozone after the European Central Bank last week cut interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point to 2pc, as expected. Germany's 10-year bund yield was down nearly three basis points to 2.54pc. 8:06AM UK stocks muted ahead of trade talks The FTSE 100 opened slightly higher as the US and China prepare to hold trade talks in London. The UK's blue-chip stock index climbed 0.1pc to 8,845.73 while the mid-cap FTSE 250 was flat at 21,159.10. 8:03AM Trump says China talks 'should go very well' Donald Trump said the talks in London 'should go very well'. The negotiations come just a few days after the US president and Xi Jinping finally held their first publicly announced telephone talks since the Republican returned to the White House. Trump said the call, which took place on Thursday, had reached a 'very positive conclusion.' Xi was quoted by state-run news agency Xinhua as saying that 'correcting the course of the big ship of Sino-US relations requires us to steer well and set the direction'. The call came after tensions between the world's two biggest economies had soared, with Trump accusing Beijing of violating a tariff de-escalation deal reached in Geneva in mid-May. Mr Trump's press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told Fox News on Sunday: 'We want China and the United States to continue moving forward with the agreement that was struck in Geneva.' 7:46AM China export growth plunges as Trump tariffs bite China's export growth slowed to a three-month low in May as US tariffs hit shipments. Total exports from the world's second largest economy expanded by 4.8pc year-on-year last month, down from 8.1pc in April and below analyst expectations of 5pc, according to customs data. China's exports to the US plunged by 34.5pc in the sharpest drop since the outbreak of the Covid pandemic in February 2020. Imports dropped 3.4pc, deepening sharply from the 0.2pc decline in April, despite the trade deal agreed between Beijing and Washington in Geneva at the start of last month. Zichun Huang of Capital Economics said: 'The slowdown in export growth in May should partially reverse this month, as it reflects the drop in US orders before the trade truce, which took time to feed through to actual shipments. 'But with tariffs likely to remain elevated and Chinese manufacturers facing broader constraints on their ability to sustain rapid gains in global market share, we think export growth will slow further by year-end.' Exports YoY in China decreased to 4.80 percent in May from 8.10 percent in April of 2025. — TRADING ECONOMICS (@tEconomics) June 9, 2025 7:35AM Trade war 'in nobody's interests' says UK Government Top US and Chinese officials will sit down in London today for talks aimed at defusing the high-stakes trade dispute between the two superpowers. Their trade war has deepened in recent weeks beyond tit-for-tat tariffs to export controls over goods and components critical to global supply chains. At a still-undisclosed venue in London, the two sides will try to get back on track with a preliminary agreement struck last month in Geneva. The US delegation will be led by treasury secretary Scott Bessent, commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and US trade representative Jamieson Greer. The Chinese contingent will be helmed by vice premier He Lifeng. A UK Government spokesman said: 'The next round of trade talks between the US and China will be held in the UK on Monday. 'We are a nation that champions free trade and have always been clear that a trade war is in nobody's interests, so we welcome these talks.' 7:22AM FTSE 100 on track to open flat Investors in Europe appear more sceptical about the prospects of the US-China trade talks kicking off in London today. The FTSE 100, France's Cac 40 and Germany's Dax are all on track to open flat when trading gets underway later. Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, said: 'Asian stocks are rallying at the start of the week; however, European equity futures and US futures are taking a breather and are pointing to a slightly lower open later today.' She added: 'Stocks may need a new driver to extend last week's rally after investors scaled back their expectations for Federal Reserve interest rates cuts for this year. There are less than two cuts priced in by the Fed Fund Futures market by the end of this year. 'The number of rate cuts from the Fed could be determined by the outlook for US inflation, which is released later this week. As the growth data remain unaffected by tariffs for now, inflation could hold the key for US monetary policy.' 7:15AM Good morning Thanks for joining me. Asian stock markets rallied overnight in the lead up to fresh trade talks between the US and China which will kick off in London later. 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What happened overnight Shares rose in Asia ahead of the second round of trade talks between Washington and Beijing, due later today in London. In South Korea, the Kospi added 1.9pc to 2,865.52. Chinese markets rose even though the government reported that exports slowed in May, growing 4.8pc from a year earlier after a jump of more than 8pc in April. Exports to the United States fell nearly 10pc compared with a year earlier. China also reported that consumer prices fell 0.1pc in May from a year earlier, marking the fourth consecutive month of deflation. Hong Kong's Hang Seng picked up 1.4pc to 24,119.64 while the Shanghai Composite Index climbed 0.4pc to 3,397.13. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 gained 1.1pc to 38,137.09 as the government reported that the Japanese economy contracted by 0.2pc in the January-March quarter. Australia's market was closed for a public holiday. On Friday, stocks gained ground on Wall Street following a better-than-expected report on the US job market. The gains were broad, with every sector in the S&P 500 rising. That solidified a second consecutive winning week for the benchmark index, which has rallied back from a slump two months ago to come within striking distance of its record high. The S&P 500 rose 1pc to 6,000.36. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1pc to 42,762.87 while the Nasdaq gained 1.2pc, to 19,529.95.


The Guardian
29 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Chinese tech firms freeze AI tools in crackdown on exam cheats
Big Chinese tech companies appear to have turned off some AI functions to prevent cheating during the country's highly competitive university entrance exams. More than 13.3 million students are sitting the four-day gaokao exams, which began on Saturday and determine if and where students can secure a limited spot in university. This year, students hoping to get some assistance from increasingly advanced AI tools have been stymied. In screenshots shared online, one Chinese user posted a photo of an exam question to Doubao, owned by TikTok's parent company, ByteDance. The app responded: 'During the college entrance examination, according to relevant requirements, the question answering service will be suspended'. An attempt by the user to tell the app 'this is not the college entrance examination' prompted the same response. Another screenshot also revealed DeepSeek, a leading generative AI tool new to the Chinese market this year, was telling users that their service was not available during specific hours 'to ensure fairness in the college entrance examination'. Yuanbao, owned by the tech company Tencent, Alibaba's Qwen, and Moonshot's Kimi have also turned off their picture recognition functions during exam hours, Bloomberg reports. The Guardian has contacted the relevant companies for comment, none of which have made public statements about the functions freeze. The suspension appears to have been publicised largely by existing university students who have been locked out of tools to assist them in their study and assignments. 'College entrance exam candidates, you are all shit,' read one tongue-in-cheek complaint on Weibo. 'I can't use DeepSeek to upload pictures, I have to download ChatGPT again, I hope you all go to community college.' The AI suspension is not the only tool being used to prevent cheating in the gaokao exam week, which can decide a young person's entire future. Several regions have previously announced they would be using AI monitoring tools to watch for 'abnormal behaviours', such as whispers or repeated glances between students, during exams. In Jiangxi province, for example, footage will be reviewed after the exam and any violations or misconduct 'dealt with strictly in accordance with relevant regulations', the state-backed Global Times reports. Late last month, Chinese authorities also announced stricter entry checks at exam points, biometric identification, enhanced screening for digital devices, and radio signal blockers, state media reported. Reflecting how seriously Chinese society views the gaokao, some cities have postponed disruptive events such as public performances, delayed office starting hours and created dedicated priority traffic lanes to ensure students arrive to the test on time. Additional research by Jason Tzu Kuan Lu


Sky News
29 minutes ago
- Sky News
Trade war: US-China talks in London aim for widespread truce
Top US and Chinese officials are meeting in London on Monday in the hope of making further progress in easing the trade war between the world's two largest economies. The eyes of global financial market investors are firmly on the outcome of the discussions, given the damage already inflicted by the spat and wider US -led trade war. The US delegation is led by Treasury secretary Scott Bessent while China 's vice premier He Lifeng - a respected negotiator at the top of the Chinese government - will represent his country. The venue has not been disclosed. It is hoped the talks will build on the preliminary agreement struck in Geneva that removed the effective trade embargo between the two nations. That deal amounted to a 90-day reduction in effective tariff rates above 100% to allow for further talks. A phone conversation between Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping last week set the scene for Monday's negotiations. Mr Trump later said that Xi had agreed to resume shipments to the US of rare earths minerals and magnets. They had been suspended by Beijing in response to Mr Trump's tariffs and were seen as an effective tool in getting the US to talk due to the havoc it inflicted on supply chains central to many US manufacturers - the very sector the US president is trying to bolster through his "America first" agenda. It emerged on Monday morning that Boeing had resumed shipments of planes to Chinese customers. 2:02 Mr Trump has described the status of the negotiations as "very far advanced" but China, in its own remarks, has been more critical of the US position. A Chinese government readout of the Trump-Xi conversation said the Chinese premier had told his US counterpart to back down from inflicting further hurt to the global economy. The trade war to date has damaged growth widely, with official US figures showing a sharp slowdown in the first quarter of the year - before the worst of the tariff regime had even been announced. Data out of China on Monday showed deflationary pressures had deepened as factory gate prices - an important signal on future price growth - slid further into negative territory during May as demand for goods continued to drag. Customs data had already showed that China's exports to the US - its biggest single market - slumped by 34.5% year-on-year during May in value terms. That was up from a 21% drop the previous month. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told Fox News: "We want China and the United States to continue moving forward with the agreement that was struck in Geneva. "The administration has been monitoring China's compliance with the deal, and we hope that this will move forward to have more comprehensive trade talks." A UK government spokesperson said of hosting the negotiations: "We are a nation that champions free trade and have always been clear that a trade war is in nobody's interests, so we welcome these talks."