Local governments allow factories to pay lower contributions than legally required due to concerns about manufacturers moving operations elsewhere

Following the just completed elections, Iraq's new government must resolve fundamental constitutional questions, rebuild civil society, reform state institutions, reconstruct the economy, and end the waste and corruption in the oil sector. But perhaps the most intractable challenge of all is bridging the sectarian rift between the country’s Shia and Sunni citizens.

The great paradox of the current era of globalization is that the quest for homogeneity has been accompanied by a longing for ethnic and religious roots. That is why nationalism – what Albert Einstein called a “malignant fantasy” – remains a potent force even in united Europe.

The news that China has surpassed the US as the world's leading economic power is a startling development – or it would be if the claim were not essentially wrong. In fact, the US remains the world’s largest national economy by a substantial margin.

The news that China has surpassed the US as the world's leading economic power is a startling development – or it would be if the claim were not essentially wrong. In fact, the US remains the world’s largest national economy by a substantial margin.

The great paradox of the current era of globalization is that the quest for homogeneity has been accompanied by a longing for ethnic and religious roots. That is why nationalism – what Albert Einstein called a “malignant fantasy” – remains a potent force even in united Europe.

Since a contamination scandal in 2008 foreign brands of baby milk formula have stolen market share in China, but new restrictions on importers loom

The world economy produced goods and services worth over US$90 trillion in 2011, of which almost half came from low and middle income countries, according to new data released by the World Bank. The data covers 199 economies based on Purchasing Power Parities (PPPs), which measures the sizes of economies based on how much it […]

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Three Asian institutional investors have agreed to invest €1.275 billion (US$1.768 billion) in ING Group's European and Japanese insurance and investment management unit as anchor investors ahead of the unit's planned IPO, according to a company announcement made by ING Group. Hong Kong-based Asian private equity firm RRJ Capital will invest €750 million (US$1.04 billion) […]

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Pan-Asian private equity firm L Capital Asia has agreed to acquire over 90% of Chinese restaurant group Crystal Jade for around US$100 million, according to media reports. No financial details of the deal were publicly disclosed. Representatives of both companies did not respond to requests for information. Crystal Jade's CEO and chairman Yiu-Tung Ip will […]

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China's currency will reverse its recent depreciation trend and begin to increase in value during the second half of this year, forecasts Bank of America Merrill Lynch in a research note. The RMB will end 2014 at an exchange rate of RMB6.10 per U.S. dollar, the bank estimates. The RMB has fallen more than 2.5% […]

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The author is China International Capital Corporation (CICC) analyst Wang Hanfeng The H-share market remained largely flat last week with a minor loss of 0.3% in the MSCI China Index after two-weeks of pullback since mid-April. Defensive sectors, such as telecom (boosted by reports of state-owned enterprise reform to set up a state-owned base station […]

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Investors should expect weaker April sequential industrial production growth, better trade numbers, lower inflation and steady monetary conditions in China, according to a report by Goldman Sachs Gao Hua. China is scheduled to release April trade data on May 8, consumer price index (CPI) and producers price index (PPI) on May 9, industrial production and […]

Visit ChinaMoneyNetwork.com for more great China Money Podcast audio and video Internet episodes covering important investment news and financial events in China, as well as daily news updates on important China business news happenings. Follow us on Twitter @chinamoneypod subscribe to all episodes on iTunes.

Coach maintained good sales performance in China and its total sales increased by over 25%, according to its latest financial report. This American luxury brand recently published its financial report for the third quarter, stating that by March 29, 2014, the company's sales were USD1.1 billion, representing a year-on-year decrease of 7%. However, it maintained […]

Lenovo's Mobile Business Group announced that they have reached a strategic deal with Chinese B2C e-commerce website JD.com. Under the agreement, Lenovo and JD reached a CNY12 billion strategic pact covering joint product development, marketing, Internet promotion, post-sales logistics, and post-sales services. Meanwhile, Lenovo's first e-commerce platform mobile phone S8 was exclusively launched on JD.com […]