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Tag: Vietnam

  • Casinos open, but Vietnamese find it difficult to gain admission

    Casinos open, but Vietnamese find it difficult to gain admission

    From March 15, 2017, Vietnamese citizens will have the right to play at casinos licensed by the government. However, they must be 21 years old or above with “full capacity for civil acts of individuals” according to Vietnamese law, have proof of regular monthly income of VND10 million ($450), and be subjected to third-degree taxation according to the law on individual income tax.

    The admission ticket is VND1 million ($45) for 24 hour entry, or VND25 million ($1,126) per person monthly.

    Nguyen Hoang Hai, deputy chair of the Vietnam Association of Financial Investors (VAFI), warned that players would find it troublesome to follow procedures to prove their income.

    “There would be no problem for employees to prove their income, but it would be difficult for businessmen and freelancers to do this,” Hai said, adding that it is unclear what documents people have to show.According to the Ministry of Finance, about 70 percent of taxpayers are subject to first- degree taxation. The people subject to third-degree taxation are those with net monthly income of VND10-18 million.

    Hai said that strict requirements would not attract players. Meanwhile, in Singapore, the requirements on players at Marina Bay Sands are not too complicated: people just need to pay the daily fee of 100 SGD (VND1.6 million), or 2,000 SGD a year (VND32 million).

    Meanwhile, the gambling limit of VND1 million for 24 hours is described as ‘too low’ which cannot satisfy players. Ngo Thanh P, a young businessman in Hanoi, said the low limit would not attract real high-income earners. If so, the goal of increasing revenue from tax collection would be unattainable.

    The owner of a privately run business in Hanoi also said that the low gambling limit would keep successful businessmen and rich people away.

    “VND25 million a month won’t be able to satisfy them. They would rather go gambling abroad than go to domestic casinos,” he said.

    However, opinions about the issue vary. Ha Ton Vinh, an expert on casinos, while agreeing that it is a right decision to open casinos to Vietnamese, stressed that it is necessary to control them strictly.

    In South Korea, there are 17 licensed casinos, but only Kangwon Land is opened to domestic players. The casino is located in a remote area, hundreds of kilometers from Seoul. In Nepal and Cambodia, casinos are open only to foreigners.

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  • Vietnam expects 10 percent rise in leather, shoe exports

    Vietnam expects 10 percent rise in leather, shoe exports

    Viet Nam’s leather and footwear industry expects to reach a total export value of US$18 billion this year, up 10 per cent from last year, said the Viet Nam Leather, Footwear and Handbag Association (Lefaso)

    According to Lefasco, there are plenty of chances for expanding exports given that orders for footwear and bag processing may be diverted from factories in China that have cut back on incentives for investment in garment and footwear manufacturing to focus on high technology.

    Another promising element is the Viet Nam-European Union free trade agreement, which will take effect in 2018 and afford Vietnamese footwear makers more opportunities to boost exports.

    To achieve this year’s target, the leather and footwear sector needs to boost technological innovation, invest in new equipment and modernise existing equipment, expand the production scale of domestic enterprises to increase productivity as well as improve the quality of products, Lefasco said.

    Lafesco reported that the sector raked in $16.2 billion from export last year, up 8.8 per cent from 2015. Of which, $13 billion came from footwear and the remaining was from handbags and leather items, marking respective annual increases of 8.2 per cent and 11.1 per cent.

    According to Lefaso, leather and footwear exports last year faced many difficulties as orders from the EU market plummeted and the sector’s export to ASEAN markets was also unstable.

    Since January 1, 2016, the tax levied on footwear and leather handbags and items circulated within the ASEAN bloc have been reduced to 0 per cent, leading to stiffer competition from regional rivals.

    Vietnamese enterprises also confronted obstacles due to the lack of capital and increasing input costs, which significantly affected the footwear sector’s export. Footwear currently ranks fourth and suitcase-bag-briefcase ranks tenth among Viet Nam’s top 10 foreign currency earners.

    The sector’s manufacturing index in 2016 rose a modest 3.7 per cent year-on-year, much lower than the 17.4 per cent and 22 per cent growth in 2015 and 2014, respectively.

  • Vietnam spends $5 million daily on chemical imports

    Vietnam spends $5 million daily on chemical imports

    A GDC report showed that in 2016 alone, Vietnam imported $1.8 billion worth of chemicals, including $1.02 billion worth of products to make other compounds. This means that Vietnam spent VND112 billion daily to import chemicals.

    The imports were mostly from China, while imports from countries with developed chemical industries such as India, the US, Canada, Israel, Japan and South Korea were modest.

    According to Ngo Tri Long, there are three reasons for Vietnam to import chemicals from China. First, Vietnam has high demand for chemicals, but it still cannot produce chemicals domestically. Second, Vietnamese enterprises prefer importing chemicals from China to other countries because Chinese products are cheaper. Third, Vietnam, like other countries neighboring China, want to import chemicals across the border gates instead of through official channels in order to avoid tax.

    Le Cao Doan from the Central Economics Institute has also expressed concern about imports from China, especially in the context of Vietnam’s high trade deficit and the risks of relying on Chinese imports.

    The high imports from China are problems to many countries including Vietnam, which imports low-quality and dirty products.

    “If Vietnam continues importing chemicals from China, it will become the place containing low-quality products and relying on Chinese imports,” he said.

    Doan said that Vietnam is facing two big problems.

    If continuing to rely on China, the Vietnam economy would lag behind, because the  economy would be based on industrial production, similar to what China once experienced in the past. In addition, Vietnam would see the damage to the environment and the platform for development.

    What does Vinachem do?

    Vinachem, or the Vietnam Chemicals Group, is known as the largest domestic chemicals producer which regulates big fertilizer and chemical factories in Vietnam.

    However, the big factories put under Vinachem’s management are incurring huge losses of trillions of dong.

    Meanwhile, Vu Dinh Duy, a member of Vinachem’s board of directors, has left Vietnam for medical services and has been unreachable for many months.

    In the latest news, Vinachem has set up a steering committee to solve existing problems at fertilizer plants which are incurring big losses.

    Besides the chemicals companies in which the state holds the controlling stakes, Vietnam also has many privately run companies in the field.

    However, an analyst said domestic chemical output remains modest and Vietnam still has to rely on imports.

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  • Vietnam retail revenue reaches $11 billion

    Vietnam retail revenue reaches $11 billion

    Vietnam retail and services revenue rose 10 per cent year-on-year last month to US$15 billion.

    Excluding inflation, the amount marked a yearly increase of 6.7 per cent, says the General Statistics Office (GSO).

    Statistician Vu Manh Ha attributes the growth to stable prices, despite high local consumption in preparation for the Tet holiday and sufficient stocks in supermarkets for the country’s biggest festival.

    Retail accounted for more than three-quarters of total sales, reaching $11.5 billion – up 6.5 per cent from the previous month and 11 per cent more than the same period last year.

    Sectors recording positive growth included food and foodstuffs (up 13 per cent), textile and garments (up 11.5 per cent), transport services (up 11.2 per cent) and home appliances (up 7.8 per cent).

    Accommodation, restaurant and catering services, which made up 11.3 per cent of the total, topped more than $1.64 billion, representing a yearly rise of 3 per cent.

    Localities that did well in accommodation, restaurant and catering sales included Ba Ria-Vung Tau with a 12 per cent rise, Thanh Hoa (8.6 per cent), Kien Giang (7.4 per cent), Hanoi (5.7 per cent) and Da Nang (5.2 per cent). However, there were downturns in several localities, including Quang Binh with a 12.4 per cent drop, and Ho Chi Minh City and Nam Dinh, falling by 5.3 per cent.

  • Finance Ministry tells online hotel booking services to pay tax

    Finance Ministry tells online hotel booking services to pay tax

    Agoda, Traveloka, Booking and Expedia have to pay VAT (value added tax) and CIT (corporate income tax), which is 5 percent of total revenue, for profits from doing business in Vietnam, according to the Ministry of Finance (MOF).

    MOF released the decision one month after Vntrip.vn, a Vietnamese owned firm, criticized Agoda for evading tax in Vietnam. It said the tax payment duty must be implemented by accommodation service providers on behalf of foreign contractors like the contractor withholding tax.

    If clients who book hotel rooms make payment directly to the accommodation service providers in Vietnam (hotels or guesthouses), and the service providers pay commissions to foreign contractors, the service providers will have to make tax declarations and pay tax.

    If clients pay money to foreign contractors, foreign contractors will transfer money to accommodation service providers, while retaining commissions. Taxation bodies will ask accommodation service providers to inform foreign contractors about tax duties and pay tax on behalf of foreign contractors.

    MOF said it released legal documents with an aim to stop the loss of revenue from tax collection as Vietnam could not collect tax from foreign companies which make profits from providing services to Vietnamese via the internet.

    Prior to that, in December 2016, Vntrip.vn held a meeting with the local press, saying Agoda evaded tax in Vietnam.

    The representative of Vntrip.vn affirmed that unhealthy competition was occurring in Vietnam as foreign service providers don’t have to pay tax, causing a loss of trillions of dong in revenue to the state budget.

    Vntrip.vn warned that Vietnam may lose VND10 trillion worth of tax by 2020, if it cannot find the way to collect tax from the company.

    Vntrip sent an official document to MOF denouncing Agoda and similar service providers for evading tax. The behavior by Vntrip then surprised the public, because Booking.com, who was the strategic partner of Vntrip, and Agoda were considered ‘brothers’ as they both belonged to the US-based Priceline.

    Another surprise was that before MOF released the decision officially asking Agoda to pay tax, the Vietnamese domain name of Agoda, the tourism website, unexpectedly stopped operation.

    Le Dac Lam, Vntrip’s CEO, applauded MOF’s decision.

    “Some people advised us to focus on doing business rather than spending time thinking about policies for foreign companies,” Lam said.

    Nguyen Duc Tai, president and CEO of The Gioi Di Dong, the largest domestic technology product distribution chain, said Vntrip should focus on its own business instead of suing other companies, because the move won’t bring benefits.

  • Weak green tax can lead to more single-use plastic bags

    Weak green tax can lead to more single-use plastic bags

    The weight-based environmental tax can do more harm than good if businesses try to ease the burden by making and using thin plastic bags. The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) has weighed in on a debate involving changes to the country’s Environmental Protection Law.

    Lawmakers are considering raising the environmental protection duty imposed on petroleum products by up to three times to VND8,000 per liter, and on plastic bags from the current VND30,000-50,000 to VND40,000-80,000 per kilogram, according to a proposal prepared by the finance ministry.

    However, the VCCI, which represents thousands of businesses across the country, said in a statement that plastic bags should be taxed individually instead of by weight.

    It said that when plastic bags are taxed based on their weight, producers are tempted to produce thin plastic bags.

    While disposable, thin bags require less material, they are unlikely to be reused and are more difficult to recycle, which means these single-use bags are more harmful to the environment than thicker bags, it said.

    “Current taxes do not go far enough to protect the environment,” it said.

    The VCCI also said taxes should also be imposed on other plastic products like Styrofoam cups and boxes.

    The environment ministry estimates that Vietnamese use more than 800 tons of plastic bags every day.

    Official figures from 2014 showed that in Ho Chi Minh City, nine million, or more than 50 tons of plastic bags, were being used every day, which was twice the number from four years earlier.

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  • ‘Lucky’ license plates set to go under the hammer in Vietnam

    ‘Lucky’ license plates set to go under the hammer in Vietnam

    Channeling people’s love of lucky numbers into the state budget: Why not? Vietnamese people are die-hard fans of lucky numbers and are ready to pay a hefty price to obtain license plates or phone numbers with “meaningful” strings of digits.

    In that context, Vietnamese authorities have been pushing the country’s legislature for a new circular that would legalize the auction of personalized license plates to raise funds for the state budget.

    The Traffic Police Department under the Ministry of Public Security has been advocating the auction of license plates for many years but to no avail due to conflicts with the existing Property Auction Law, under which license plates are not listed as valid objects for auctioning.

  • Heavy rain damages rice crops in southern Vietnam

    Heavy rain damages rice crops in southern Vietnam

    Mekong Delta provinces, which just recovered from a historic drought a year ago, is bracing for more unfavorable weather. Vietnamese farmers in the Mekong Delta are seeing their rice crops being damaged after heavy downpours hit the region in recent days.

    Nguyen Van Cung from Can Tho City said that his family is trying to dig ditches to save nearly 1,000 hectares (247 acres) of rice submerged under water.

    “We can’t harvest now because the crops are not ready,” he said.

    Latest statistics showed that more than 7,000 hectares of rice in the two Mekong Delta provinces of Ca Mau anh Hau Giang have been ravaged by rain. Many shrimp farms are also threatened by flooding.

    They said the Mekong Delta should expect to see more unusual weather patterns, with more rain likely coming until the end of February.Experts said the heavy rains were caused by the weather phenomenon La Nina, which came after the devastating El Nino last year.

    Last year, a historic drought and saltwater intrusion damaged more than 400,000 hectares of crops and resulted in severe water shortages for 1.5 million people.

    The region, Vietnam’s main rice and fruit grower, is among those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, various studies have suggested.

  • Vietjet gets approval for HOSE listing

    Vietjet gets approval for HOSE listing

    The HCM Stock Exchange (HOSE) has approved the listing of Vietjet Aviation Joint Stock Company’s 300 million shares on the southern bourse.

    The opening price of Vietjet’s shares is unknown. Vietjet on January 25 registered its 300 million shares with the Vietnam Securities Depository.

    According to Reuters, Vietjet Air has sold 44.8 million shares of current shareholders to institutional investors at VND84,600 per share, and 3.5 million shares to individual investors for VND86,500 per share.

    About 30 international corporations and investment funds have offered to purchase Vietjet’s shares, including Morgan Stanley, Mirae Asset, Dragon Capital and VinaCapital.

    According to a recent report by Vietnam Enterprise Investment Limited (VEIL) run by Dragon Capital, the investment fund on January 19 owned $43 million worth of Vietjet shares. Besides VEIL, HCM City Securities Corp (HSC) also spent VND134.5 billion to buy 1.6 million of the carrier’s shares.

    Shareholders of Vietjet Air have also approved the company’s proposal to issue more than 22.3 million shares to the Huong Duong Sunny Investment Co Ltd in 2017 at a price of VND84,600 per share.

    The share issuance will increase the aviation company’s chartered capital to VND3.22 trillion.

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  • Vietnam to change landline codes in Da Nang, Hue this weekend

    Vietnam to change landline codes in Da Nang, Hue this weekend

    The country plans to change the telephone area codes in 59 cities and provinces, starting with 13 this Sunday. Vietnam will change the landline telephone area codes in Da Nang and 12 central and northern mountainous provinces from Sunday, the first step in a long-term plan to simplify the country’s telecommunications network.

    The codes will start with a “2” and be either two or three digits long. Callers will be required to dial the new area code (plus the 7-digit number) to place a domestic call.

    Also on the list are Quang Nam and Thua Thien-Hue, home to popular resort towns Hoi An and Hue.

    Later phases finishing in August will change the codes in another 46 localities including Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The codes in Vinh Phuc (211), Phu Tho (21), Hoa Binh (18) and Ha Giang (19) in northern Vietnam will remain the same.

    Minister of Information and Communications Truong Minh Tuan said that people’s existing phone numbers will remain the same and there won’t be any changes to calls between fixed line numbers within the same province.

    However, the changes will affect calls between different provinces and incoming calls from mobile phones and foreign countries to a fixed line number in Vietnam, Tuan said. In these cases, callers will be required to use the new area codes.

    Vietnam constructed its first repository of phone numbers in 2006 after eliminating a monopoly in the telecommunications sector, but the area codes and network codes of the previous networks have been left unchanged to avoid confusion.

    The ministry hopes that the area code change will solve inconsistencies in Vietnam’s area code system without having a big impact on Vietnam’s telecom traffic and users.

    Reports on Vietnam’s telecoms sector show that inter-provincial calls and mobile and international calls to fixed landlines in Vietnam only account for 1.6 percent of the country’s total telecom traffic.

    The ministry said the changes will be the first step in a long-term plan to reduce the number of area codes from 63 to only 10. Under the plan, adjacent provinces and cities will be grouped into regions with one area code. This should make the telecom network easier to manage, while people living in provinces with same area code will enjoy lower call rates.

    Areas subject to telephone code changes from February 11:

    No. Province/City Old Area Code New Area Code
    1 Son La 22 212
    2 Lai Chau 231 213
    3 Lao Cai 20 214
    4 Dien Bien 230 215
    5 Yen Bai 29 216
    6 Quang Binh 52 232
    7 Quang Tri 53 233
    8 Thua Thien-Hue 54 234
    9 Quang Nam 510 235
    10 Da Nang 511 236
    11 Thanh Hoa 37 237
    12 Nghe An 38 238
    13 Ha Tinh 39 239
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  • Thailand invests $7.7 billion in Vietnam

    Thailand invests $7.7 billion in Vietnam

    According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment’s Foreign Investment Agency (FIA), Thailand has invested US$7.7 billion in 440 projects in Viet Nam to become the country’s tenth largest investor.

    Amata industrial zone in Dong Nai Province, where Thailand has invested in infrastructure. Foreign investment in Viet Nam grew in January.

    So far, Viet Nam has attracted foreign direct investment from 112 countries and territories, the agency says.

    Thai businesses began investing right after Viet Nam introduced policies to attract foreign investment, it says. From 2006 to 2008, Viet Nam wooed the largest investment capital from Thailand amounting to $5 billion, accounting for 21.4 per cent of the total investment from ASEAN to Viet Nam worth $23.3 billion. Investments from Thailand have focussed on processing and manufacturing industries.

    At present, Thai investors have assured investments of $7.04 billion in 205 projects in the processing and manufacturing industries, accounting for 87.2 per cent of total registered invested capital. The largest project in those industries is the Southern petrochemical complex with a total investment of $3.77 billion.

    The agency says Thai investors are now turning their attention to industrial infrastructure and retail sectors. These include a joint venture project between Amata VNPCL of Thailand and Sonadezi Bien Hoa in the infrastructure sector and a project of MM Mega Market Co, Ltd in HCM City, with a capital of $36 million, reports vneconomy.vn.

    Viet Nam is considered an important investment destination in the region in line with Thailand’s policies on promoting investment in foreign countries. This is big opportunity for Viet Nam to attract investment capital from this country, FIA says.

    Thailand is near Viet Nam on the map and the two countries have cultural similarities. They signed an agreement on encouraging and protecting investments in 1992 and to create favourable conditions for investment co-operation. Therefore, Thai investors have not faced many difficulties while investing in Viet Nam. Meanwhile, the Thailand government has also encouraged and supported Thai investors already in Viet Nam.

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  • Vietnam plans to digitize healthcare cards

    Vietnam plans to digitize healthcare cards

    The electronic system will also make insurance payments faster and more transparent. Vietnam plans to issue electronic health security cards to its citizens verifying their right to medical services, the Government Office said on Monday.

    Just as a social security card shows that a person has a lifetime account used to calculate their pension benefits, the healthcare security card will make it more convenient for patients to access insurance plans and health care.

    The push to digitize the system is aimed at seamless healthcare delivery and insurance across the country.

    With the new system, electronic healthcare registries in all 63 cities and provinces will be synced together so that regardless of whether a cardholder changes their job, move to a different place or have pre-existing medical conditions, insurance plans will have to accept all cardholders.

    The electronic system will also make insurance payments faster and more transparent through digital transactions.

    The Vietnam Social Security Administration is in charge of developing a plan to sync health security, social security and unemployment insurance on one electronic card.

    About 75 million Vietnamese people, equal to about 81 percent of the population, have registered for the national health insurance program. The government aims to lift healthcare coverage to 91 percent of its population.

    However, it is still unclear about how the government will prevent the fraudulent use of the cards or how they will protect the privacy of patients and their medical records.

    Vietnam is also working on electronic immunization records that will make it easier to track vaccination data and make sure children get their shots at the recommended ages.

  • Vietnam’s Flappy Bird creator is back with a new Ninja game

    Vietnam’s Flappy Bird creator is back with a new Ninja game

    The unexpected success in 2014 has turned Nguyen Ha Dong into a star of Vietnam’s startup scene in recent years. Just one week after its debut, the latest mobile game from Nguyen Ha Dong, the creator of Flappy Bird, has become the new addiction of many people around the world.

    The fast-paced Ninja Spinki Challenges has won many positive reviews from users on Apple’s App Store and Google Play.

    The new game, which is free, is a collaborative effort between Nguyen Ha Dong’s Gear studio and Japanese game maker Obokaidem.

    Staying true to the familiar 8-bit style found in Flappy Bird, it requires game players to have a good mix of dexterity and fast reactions to tap and swipe through levels.

    “The game is entertaining and brain-teasing at the same time,” said Huy Can, a gamer.

    “What should I do when it comes to the point of frustration?” a player asked sarcastically, referring to the game’s difficulty.

    Flappy Bird was released in May 2013 with little fanfare. By February 2014, the sleeper hit topped the charts in more than 100 countries and had been downloaded more than 50 million times. Dong reportedly earned an estimated $50,000 a day.

    The Vietnamese government has seen successes like Flappy Bird as an encouraging sign. It is trying hard to cultivate a startup scene where tech entrepreneurs can create products and services that will go global.

    The overnight success of Flappy Bird seemed to overwhelm its creator, who later decided to pull the game from the app stores.

  • Vietnam’s car imports soar in January as tariffs fall

    Vietnam’s car imports soar in January as tariffs fall

    Tariffs on car imports from ASEAN countries will be fully removed by 2018. A growing middle-class population, rising disposable incomes and falling tariffs on cars imported from neighboring countries in Southeast Asia appear to be driving Vietnam’s car market.

    The country’s car imports in the first half of January soared 50 percent from the same period last year to about 5,000 units worth $116 million, customs data shows.

    This surge in imports is mainly due to a switch from motorbikes to cars. Around 75 percent of imported cars were classed as midsize sedans and the number of vehicles with nine seats and below nearly tripled from a year ago to more than 3,000 units.

    Vietnam still relies heavily on imported automobiles to meet domestic demand despite a slight year-on-year decline in 2016 to 113,567 cars after it imported a record-breaking number of 125,534 units in 2015, according to customs statistics, equivalent to a 77 percent jump from 2014.

    Since the Vietnamese government has targeted car manufacturing as a “spearhead industry”- one of the economy’s driving forces – car import taxes have remained high to shield domestic automobile producers from foreign rivals.

    However, following the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement, Vietnam will cut tariffs incrementally over the next few years on imported cars from ASEAN countries. With the tariff scheduled to be fully removed by 2018, import turnover from ASEAN neighbors is expected to increase exponentially.

    The tariff on cars from Thailand and Indonesia has been cut to 30 percent from 40 percent, effective at the start of this year, according to tax authorities. As a result, many imported cars will be 7 percent cheaper than previously.

    New cars imported from Thailand dominate the market, with Mazda, Toyota and Ford among the most popular.

    Sales of used cars are slowing, said the association of automobile manufacturers.

    The number of imported new cars from ASEAN countries is on the rise due mainly to relaxed tax policies, including lower import tariffs, value added tax and special consumption tax, which will benefit import companies and authorized dealers, said a car dealer in Hanoi.

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  • Nice start to the year. Pity about the rest of it

    Nice start to the year. Pity about the rest of it

    There are too many uncertainties ahead to know whether it will continue or crumble, economists say. The world economy has begun the year in fine form. America is cruising along, China is growing faster than expected, Britain is muffling the Brexit downdraft. Even the usually lagging euro zone is perky.

    Pity about what lies ahead.

    Almost every major economy’s data releases these days seem to follow a similar pattern.

    First, they are generally positive – either better than previously or only a little weaker. Then, policymakers and economists come out and say there are too many uncertainties ahead to know whether it will continue or crumble.

    “Geopolitical risks are mounting and increasingly catching market attention in such fashion as to risk overshadowing most other developments,” Canada’s Scotiabank told its clients.

    The risks are primarily political. How will U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America First” protectionist talk translate into policy? Will Brexit finally come back to bite Britain by cutting off commercial growth and breeding inflation?

    For the euro zone, meanwhile, the risks are existential. Elections in France, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands could result in anti-euro political parties gaining significant ground or even taking office. And Greece’s hold on its place in the currency union remains flimsy.

    In the past week the extra money investors demand to buy French bonds rather than German ones jumped – much of it because of a comment by an official of the far-right National Front that it would put leaving the euro at the heart of its economic platform.

    Polls suggest National Front candidate Marine Le Pen will not win the presidency – but after the Trump and Brexit surprises last year nothing can be ruled out.

    Other risks are more Keynesian, revolving around whether years of stimulus from central banks in the form of asset-buying and negligible interest rates are finally producing inflation, which in turn will stop consumers from buying, slowing economic growth.

    Economics can be very much a game of whack-a-mole.

    Up next

    The coming week may well be dominated by China, which returns from a holiday with a large slate of data, including the services purchasing managers index – which implied steady if slightly slower growth – foreign reserves data and possibly trade figures.

    China grew a faster-than-expected 6.8 percent in the fourth quarter, boosted by higher government spending and record bank lending.

    But the economy still faces headwinds from a cooling housing market and possible protectionist measures from the U.S.

    The foreign exchange reserves, meanwhile, are on the verge of falling below $3 trillion, although the pace of declines could be slowed by capital controls and the dollar’s retreat.

    China is being cautious. It raised a number of policy rates on Friday against what Deutsche Bank described as a dilemma.

    “Policy needs to be tightened for financial stability considerations, but (the central bank) wants to control the pace and magnitude so that … the tightening does not trigger disruptive adjustments (bubble burst), and … does not jeopardize the stabilizing growth outlook,” it said.

    In the euro zone, there will be German, French, Spanish and Italian industrial production data. All are expected to show growth.

    Germany’s volatile factory orders may be under particular scrutiny. They fell 2.5 percent month-on-month in November, a plunge from a 5 percent rise the month before.