17/03/2026

BIZ & FINANCE TUESDAY | MAR 17, 2026

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Chinese retail, industrial sectors pick up pace

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Sunday he had the authority to impose duties despite the US Supreme Court last month striking down his global tariffs. “I have the absolute right to charge TARIFFS in another form, and have already started to do so,” he said in a long post on his Truth Social platform. Trump imposed a 10% tariff on US imports via executive order shortly after the Supreme Court ruling. Washington launched new trade probes last week into 60 economies including China, the EU and Japan, which will look into “failures to take China leads in patents on anti-drone tech: Study PARIS: China is far outstripping other countries in patents filed for anti-drone technologies, a specialist law firm said yesterday, as the defences’ key place in modern warfare is highlighted anew in Middle East fighting. With 82 patents filed of a total 126 worldwide in the year to March 2025, China dominated the rankings from intellectual property experts Mathys and Squire. The US accounted for just 22 anti-drone patents and South Korea six. Expanding interest in the field was clear from its growth, up 27% from the 99 filed in the previous period. “It’s not surprising that we’re seeing a lot of innovation in that area from China,“ said Mathys and Squire partner Andy White. Beijing has been making a “concerted effort” to encourage patent-filing by businesses and individuals over the past decade, including with financial incentives, White noted. Most of the patents – 49 in 2024-25 – were related to interference and jamming. But the “next generation” is already in development, the law firm found, highlighting anti-drone lasers (39 patents) and microwave systems (24). “I wouldn’t be surprised if in another one or two years, we see (the overall number) increase massively,“ White said. The data halting in March 2025 means any developments following the outbreak of war between the US, Iran and Israel are not yet captured. Drones play a central role in the current Middle East fighting and the past four years of war between Russia and Ukraine. Iranian-designed Shahed drones have been widely deployed in both conflicts and can be tricky to counter. President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office said last week Ukrainian experts in drone defence had begun work in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. They have been tasked with sharing experience from years of intercepting Iranian-designed drones. – AFP

Industrial production rose 6.3% in January-February, the NBS data showed, up from 5.2% in December and better than the 5.3% forecast in the Bloomberg survey. And fixed asset investment leapt back into positive territory, rising 1.8% during the same period, the NBS said. “China’s activity data suggest that growth accelerated at the start of the year, driven by both strong exports and a pickup in domestic demand,” wrote Zhichun Huang of Capital Economics. However, the annual budget released at this month’s political gathering suggests “fiscal policy will provide less of an impulse to the economy in 2026 compared to 2025”, Huang wrote. That “will likely weigh on growth later in the year”, she added. The country’s surveyed

In a clear sign of the hurdles, top policymakers announced China’s lowest annual growth target in decades at a key political gathering this month. But in a positive start to 2026, figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday showed retail sales grew 2.8% on-year in January and February combined. The figure topped a forecast of 2.5% in a Bloomberg survey of economists. China’s authorities typically combine data for the first two months of the year to account for distortions caused by the varying Lunar New Year holiday, which normally sees a boost in activity. The retail sales growth was the largest since October but fell short of the jumps recorded during the same months in past years, including four percent in 2025.

administration had shown sufficient cause to remove her. “This completely inept and embarrassing Court was not what the Supreme Court of the United States was set up by our wonderful Founders to be,“ Trump said in his social media post. “They are hurting our Country, and will continue to do so. “All I can do, as President, is call them out for their bad behavior! This statement about the United States Supreme Court will cause me nothing but problems in the future, but I feel it is my obligation to speak the TRUTH.” – AFP unemployment rate crept up to 5.3% during the first two months, the NBS said, the highest since the same figure was recorded in August. China reported record exports last year, offering a crucial lifeline as domestic activity slumped. And they surged even faster to start off this year, official data showed last week. “The export boom helped to boost industrial production,” wrote Zhiwei Zhang, president of Pinpoint Asset Management, noting that yesterday’s figures were “better than expected”. However, turmoil in the Middle East could change the outlook for the economy, Zhang warned. “I expect the policymakers in China to watch the development closely and respond through fiscal policy if necessary,” he wrote. Analytics firm Kpler said China imports around half its seaborne crude from the Middle East, where traffic in the Strait of Hormuz is currently paralysed by the US-Israeli war with Iran. Observers say its massive oil reserves will allow China to weather disruption in the short term, though prolonged blockages could present major challenges. Chinese President Xi Jinping and US counterpart Donald Trump are due to hold a high-stakes summit in Beijing. The White House has said the meeting will run from March 31 to April 2, though China has not confirmed the plans, in line with usual practice. The trade relationship between the world’s two largest economies has been tested since Trump’s return to the White House last year, with Washington launching a fierce tariff war that has since reached a shaky truce. Top Chinese and US economic officials met for trade talks in Paris on Sunday, in a gathering widely seen as setting the stage for the Xi-Trump summit. However, the US president said in an interview with the Financial Times published yesterday that he “may delay” the potential meeting as he turns his attention to the Iran war. – AFP

o Unemployment rate creeps up to 5.3% during the first two months of 2026 BEIJING: Activity in China’s retail and industrial sectors picked up pace in the first two months of the year, official data showed yesterday, as Beijing seeks to revive spending and navigate looming challenges overseas. Leaders in the world’s second-largest economy are attempting to make domestic consumption a main driver of growth as the once-booming property sector remains mired in a debt crisis.

A person walks in front of an art installation in Deji Plaza shopping mall in the China city of Nanjing. – REUTERSPIC

Trump says he has ‘absolute right’ to charge tariffs in another form

‘Too Late’ Powell case, and many others, has little to do with the Law, and everything to do with Politics,“ Trump said. He has repeatedly insulted Powell over the central bank’s policies on setting the economy’s key interest rate. Trump has been vocal about his preferences for lower interest rates, criticising Powell and attempting to unseat Fed governor Lisa Cook over allegations of mortgage fraud. In January, the US Supreme Court appeared skeptical of Trump’s attempts to fire Cook, with a majority of judges expressing doubts that the

Trump wrote in his post that the Supreme Court “knew where I stood, how badly I wanted this Victory for our Country, and instead decided to, potentially, give away Trillions of Dollars to Countries and Companies who have been taking advantage of the United States for decades”. In another post on Sunday night, Trump excoriated federal judge James Boasberg for quashing subpoenas issued as part of a probe into Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell over costs linked to the bank’s headquarters renovations. “What Boasberg has done on the

action on forced labour” and whether they burden or restrict US commerce. Trump’s post came hours after Beijing urged Washington to “immediately correct its erroneous ways” as the two countries began a new round of negotiations. Beijing’s commerce ministry called the latest US investigations “extremely unilateral, arbitrary and discriminatory”, accusing Washington of “attempting to construct trade barriers”. Chinese and US trade officials met in Paris on Sunday for talks that Washington has said would last two days.