China has issued a total of 16 batches of government bonds for Covid-19 control this year, totaling 1 trillion yuan (US$144.76 billion), according to the Ministry of Finance (MoF).
The bonds included 200 billion yuan of five-year bonds, 100 billion yuan of seven-year bonds and 700 billion yuan of 10-year bonds, said Wang Xiaolong, director of the Treasury Department at the MoF.
“The funds raised through the issuance of special bonds have been sent to local governments and are being put into specific projects,” Wang said.
As an extraordinary measure for an unusual time, China decided to issue 1 trillion yuan in government bonds for Covid-19 control this year, according to the annual government work report released in May.
The MoF will step up supervision over the use of the funds to ensure they are not withheld or diverted for non-designated uses, Wang said.
State-owned enterprises
Profits and revenue of China’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs) continued to post year-on-year growth in July, said the MoF.
The combined profits rose 14% in July from the same period last year, while revenues increased by 2.7%.
The declines in key indicators of SOEs further narrowed during the first seven months of the year, showing their recovery momentum had consolidated, the ministry said.
In the first seven months, profits of SOEs fell 30.4% year on year to 1.48 trillion yuan, narrowing by 8.4 percentage points from the decline in the first six months.
Revenues decreased 3.5% during the first seven months from a year ago, compared with a 4.9% decrease posted in the period between January and June.
Company news
Bilibili Inc, an entertainment online platform, said its total revenue generated from mobile games, membership fees and advertising grew 70% year-on-year to 2.6 billion yuan in the three months ended June.
The company’s advertising revenue jumped 108% to 348.6 million yuan for the period. Average daily active users rose 52% to 50.5 million.
However, the company said its adjusted losses expanded to 475.7 million yuan during the quarter from 256.1 million a year ago. It said it would continue to target young customers.
Didi Chuxing, China’s largest ride-hailing platform, announced that the peak global daily orders on the company’s platform surpassed 50 million for the first time, reflecting a revival of consumption and an economic recovery.
The announcement came as the Beijing-based company said it had officially rolled out car-hailing services in Russia, as it ramps up its push to expand its overseas presence, despite negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The stories were written by Yang Zhijie and Liu Licong and first published at ATimesCN.com. They were translated by Nadeem Xu.