Beijing issues 100m yuan in restaurant coupons
Beijing’s city government announced that it would be issuing 100m yuan ($14.9m USD) in coupons to consumers in order to boost spending at restaurants and beverage outlets.
Consumer spending in the sector has suffered in recent months as the city has faced waves of restrictions amid continuing Covid outbreaks.
Cities and provinces have announced various coupon schemes in recent months to help boost demand following Covid lockdowns.
Yesterday, Shandong province announced a coupon scheme providing 200m yuan (29.9m USD) for new car purchases and an additional 200m yuan for purchases of home appliances.
Beijing reported 4 new cases yesterday and announced it had detected the more infectious omicron BA.5.2 variant, however health officials say the current outbreak is controllable.
Beijing also announced that it is beginning a vaccine mandate in the city, with vaccinations being required to enter public spaces such as community centers, museums, and libraries, although restaurants are currently exempted from this.
Until now, China has avoided vaccine mandates for the general public. But as vaccination rates amid elderly populations continue to lag, officials may be looking for new measures to push seniors to get vaccinated.
Manager of state-owned grain trader arrested
The manager of Zhejiang Grain Group Co, a state-owned grain trading enterprise, was arrested on Thursday following a corruption investigation.
On June 29th, anti-corruption authorities open an investigation into Fu Anmin. Today it was announced that he was arrested on suspicion of abuse of power, embezzlement of public funds, and bribery.
This year has seen an uptick in the investigations and arrests of high-profile executives in state-owned grain traders including the director of the National Grain and Material Reserve Bureau and the deputy director of the State Grain Bureau. Zhejiang Grain Group is a relatively large player in the industry with storage capacity of 1.7 million tons and trades an estimated 4 million tons of grain per year.
China soybean meal cash price update
