Last week, another 58 multinational companies received their certificates for locating their regional or global headquarters in Shanghai. Car parts maker Delphi Packard Electric Systems Co, a major division of Delphi, said its global headquarters would move from Detroit in the United States to Shanghai. German consulting firm Roland Berger Strategy Consultants also set up its Asian headquarters in Shanghai. By the end of October, Shanghai had attracted 484 multinational companies to set up their regional headquarters in Shanghai, as well as 295 holding companies and 379 research and development (R&D) centers.

China’s trade surplus hit a record high in November as imports fell. Imports, defying market hopes of a mild growth, fell 6.7% to USD157.1 billion last month. It was the first drop since August and a reversal from October’s rise of 4.6%. Exports rose 4.7% from a year earlier to USD211.6 billion in November, slower than the pace of 11.6% in October. The trade surplus totaled USD54.5 billion last month, up 61.4% year-on-year and above October’s USD45.4 billion. “The fall in imports suggested that China’s economy was still under great downward pressure,” said Lian Ping, Chief Economist at the Bank of Communications (BoCom). As the combined export and import figure in the first 11 months rose 3.4% year-on-year, China will miss its trade growth target of 7.5% for a third consecutive year. Lian said China may cut interest rates again – a view shared by Wang Tao, a UBS Economist – in the remainder of this year or early next year. In the first 11 months, China’s trade with the European Union, the country’s biggest trading partner, rose 8.9%, while that with the United States gained 5.2%. The record-high trade surplus provided stimulus for the Shanghai Composite Index to surpass 3,000 points for the first time in more than three and a half years, but the stock market crashed a day later.

China’s November commodity imports show a mixed picture. Market expectation had been that the sharp drop in many commodity prices would boost imports, partly for stockpiling and partly to meet improving demand on the back of higher exports and domestic consumption. Crude imports rose to 25.41 million tons in November, equivalent to about 6.18 million barrels per day, up from 5.67 million barrels in October. Some of it was put in storage. November copper imports rose 5% from October to a seven-month high of 420,000 tons. However, imports of iron ore dropped 15.1% to 67.4 million tons in November from October. This was the second-weakest month this year as demand for steel softened due to slowing residential construction, coupled with a belief among steel mills that iron ore prices will fall further in the coming months. It seems that only those commodities being stockpiled for strategic reasons are showing growth, with the others losing steam due to a slowing economy, the China Daily reports.

Almost a quarter of purified drinking water tested by China’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been found to be substandard, with products from Wahaha Group, C’estbon Beverage and Danone’s Robust brand containing excessive levels of bacteria. Wahaha said it had recalled the affected products and cut its supply relationship with the water station where it said the contamination occurred. Chinese consumers either boil water for drinking or rely on bottled or barreled water because of high levels of pollution in waterways.

China will strive to keep economic growth and policies steady in 2015 and adapt to the “new normal” of slower speed but higher quality, according to a statement released at the end of the Central Economic Work Conference, which detailed economic policies and priorities for the country for next year. Continuity and stability are key to macro-economic policies, the statement said. To reach 2015’s goals, China’s leaders vowed to accelerate reforms, further open up the economy, encourage innovation, upgrade agriculture, enhance regional integration, and improve the livelihoods of low-income households. President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang stressed that the economy still faced many challenges and “relatively big” downward pressures such as increasing difficulties for businesses and the emergence of economic risks. China’s top leaders emphasized that China could deliver its social and economic goals for 2014 “relatively well,” with the economy staying within a reasonable range. The meeting did not announce a GDP growth target for 2015. It said China would have to adjust to the “new normal” or lower economic growth. The “old normal” refers to the 35 years between 1978 and 2013, when annual growth of the Chinese economy averaged close to 10% and, between 2003 and 2007, when it was over 11.5%. In 2015, the Chinese government will accelerate reforms in nine areas: capital markets, market access for private banks, administrative approval, investment, pricing, monopolies, franchising, government procurement and outbound investment. The problems of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) will be addressed and efforts made to improve efficiency and competitiveness, the Shanghai Daily reports.

China’s economic growth continued to slow in November. Industrial production grew 7.2% from a year earlier in November, down from the 7.7% gain in October. Fixed-asset investment (FAI) gained 15.8% in the first 11 months, hitting a 13-year low. The only bright spot was retail sales which picked up 0.2 percentage points from a month earlier to 11.7% in November, bolstered by the massive online shopping on November 11, Singles Day.