Lending benchmark remains unchanged CHINA kept its benchmark interest rate for corporate and household lending unchanged from the previous month, data from the National Interbank Funding Center showed yesterday. The one-year loan prime rate (LPR), a market-based benchmark lending rate, was held at 3.7%, while the over-five-year LPR, on which many lenders base their mortgage rates, remained at 4.6%. Auto exports soar 75% THE country’s automobile exports surged 75% year on year in the first two months of 2022, data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers showed. A total of 412,000 vehicles were exported in the period, of which passenger car exports soared 84% year on year to 331,000 units, according to the association. The growth of new energy vehicle exports contributed 52% to the surge, the data showed. Wearable device shipments up 25.4%: report THE country’s shipments of wearable devices surged last year, according to an industry report published by global market research firm International Data Corp. In 2021, total shipments of wearable devices rose 25.4% year on year to nearly 140 million units, the report stated. The country’s wearable device shipments are expected to rise 18.5% to 160 million units in 2022, according to the report. Huawei remains top player in telecom equipment HUAWEI continued to lead the global market in telecommunication equipment in 2021, covering 28.7% of the market share in revenue, followed by Ericsson, Nokia, ZTE and Cisco, according to a report by Dell’Oro, a Silicon Valley-based telecom information and service provider. “[Huawei] underscored its grip on the Chinese market, depth of its telecom portfolio, and resiliency with existing footprints,” the report said. Ericsson took the second place with revenue accounting for 15% of global share, Nokia at 14.9%, and ZTE at 10.5%. China Merchants Bank profit up 23% CHINA Merchants Bank, one of the largest lenders in China, posted net profit growth of 23.2% in 2021. The Shenzhen-based bank raked in 119.9 billion yuan (US$18.83 billion) in net profit attributable to shareholders last year, according to the company’s latest earnings report filed with the Shanghai Stock Exchange. | 