Asia today - Chinese property, macro statistics, shadow banking and rise of the yuan

Asia today is really initially a China special.  Not too much new economic news out today apart from the latest property price data:

'In China, new home prices across 70 cities tracked by the government rose 5.6 per cent from a year ago, versus a 6.7 per cent rise in April...On a monthly basis, prices rose in only 15 cities, versus 44 in April, as Beijing clamps down on the shadow banking sector but also tries to encourage more lending from the formal banking system'

Interesting today how many commentators have (inevitably) reported the data as the number of cities where prices are falling...such is the commentary bias!  Until prices fall 5%+ nationally I am not going to worry inherently too much about the Chinese market.

The other obsessions include weak commodity demand...

...reflecting weakening growth conditions:

 

 

Once again to me the medium-term prospects for China are focused on the microeconomic reform area and progress there is not headline grabbing but appears to be on-going.  

 

 

Otherwise, China has received a lot of attention for the growth of its informal shadow banking sector but (as a proportion of GDP) it is not the largest in the world by any means...(2012 data admittedly).

 

So nothing to stop the rise of the yuan? Ultimately probably not...except the Chinese not wanting to 'hit the front' before they are ready. 

 

Finally, inflows into the emerging markets are apparently going up again.  Two observations: first, on this data the Putin/Crimea influence was not high and, second, note the 'fears over US Fed's tapering' alleged influence.  An interesting observation ahead of the FOMC...