China foreign exchange reserves at $1.954 trillion
China's central bank said Saturday that its foreign exchange reserves rose 16 percent year-on-year to $1.9537 trillion by the end of March.
China's reserves, already the world's largest, increased by $7.7 billion in the first quarter - $146.2 billion less than the same period last year, the People's Bank of China said in a notice on its Web site.
That rise was substantially less than the fourth quarter increase of almost $45 billion, according to China's official Xinhua News Agency, showing the impact of slowing exports due to the financial crisis.
In March, the reserves increased by $41.7 billion, it said, $6.7 billion more than the same period last year.
Analysts believe China holds up to 70 percent of its foreign reserves in U.S. dollar-denominated assets, including Treasury securities.
China's reserves have ballooned as the central bank buys up dollars generated from its huge trade and influx of foreign investment.
While China's economy has slowed due to a plunge in trade and a slump in the domestic real estate industry, recent data show the drop eased in March.
Beijing has taken steps to hold down the price of exports by cutting taxes on exporters and stopping the rise of China's tightly controlled currency, the yuan, against the U.S. dollar. Economists say both steps could strain relations with trading partners if China is seen to be competing unfairly.
Western leaders including British Prime Minister Gordon Brown are pressing for China to contribute to a global bailout fund from its reserves.
Exports fell 17 percent in March from a year earlier, the fifth straight monthly decline but less severe than February's 25.7 plunge, the sharpest in a decade, the customs agency reported Friday. It said trade "showed clear signs of improvement."
Imports fell by 25.7 percent, widening the Chinese trade surplus to $18.6 billion from February's $4.8 billion gap.
Federal budget deficit sets March record $192.3B
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Treasury Department said Friday that the budget deficit increased by $192.3 billion in March, and is near $1 trillion just halfway through the budget year, as costs of the financial bailout and recession mount.
Last month's deficit, a record for March, was significantly higher than the $150 billion that economists expected.
The deficit already totals $956.8 billion for the first six months of the budget year, also a record for that period. The Obama administration projects the deficit for the entire year will hit $1.75 trillion.
A deficit at that level would nearly quadruple the previous annual record of $454.8 billion set last year. The March deficit was nearly four times the size of the imbalance in the same month last year.
Nearly $300 billion provided to the nation's banks and other companies to cope with the most severe financial crisis in seven decades has pushed government spending higher.
The Treasury report said that through the end of March, $293.4 billion had been provided to support companies through the $700 billion bailout fund Congress passed last October. That support has been provided primarily to banks, although insurance giant American International Group Inc. (AIG) and auto companies General Motors Corp. (GM) and Chrysler LLC also have received assistance.
Besides the bailout fund, Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) received $46 billion last month, bringing the total assistance provided to the mortgage finance companies to $59.8 billion since October. The government took control of both last September after they had suffered billions of dollars in losses on mortgage loans.
Through the first six months of the budget year that began Oct. 1, tax revenues have totaled $989.8 billion, down 13.6 percent from the year-ago period. The government's receipts have been reduced sharply by the recession, which is shaping up to be the longest of the post World War II period. The downturn began in December 2007.
Government outlays totaled $1.95 trillion through March, 33.4 percent higher than the year-ago period. Besides higher payments for the financial rescue, the government is paying more in such areas as unemployment benefits and food stamps.
The Treasury report showed benefit payments from the unemployment trust fund totaled $44.6 billion so far this budget year, up from $19.4 billion last year.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated last month that President Barack Obama's budget proposals would produce $9.3 trillion in deficits over the next decade, a figure $2.3 trillion higher than estimates made in February in the administration's first budget proposal.
The CBO review projected Obama's budget would generate deficits averaging almost $1 trillion annually over the decade ending in 2019.
The administration said it remained confident its forecasts for declining deficits over that same period could be achieved. But private economists have faulted those estimates for relying on economic assumptions they believe are too optimistic.
The administration projects that after hitting $1.75 trillion this year, the gap between spending and tax revenues will dip to $1.17 trillion in 2010, and plunge to $533 billion in 2013. If accurate, that would fulfill Obama's pledge to cut the deficit he inherited in half by the end of his current term in office.
Some economists have expressed concerns that the massive deficits being forecast could push interest rates up sharply, especially if foreign investors worry about the size of the U.S. deficit projections.
Lawrence Summers, director of Obama's National Economic Council, said Thursday there have been no indications that investors are growing worried about the size of the deficits. On the contrary, he said yields on Treasury securities have been pushed lower by increased demand from investors seeking to hold Treasury bonds as a safe haven in uncertain economic times.
My Way News - Federal budget deficit sets March record $192.3B