Numbers of the Week

$442 billion

At the end of September 2008, China held about $442 billion in foreign debt.

7 billion yuan

Loss-making China Eastern Airlines Co. Ltd. got a capital injection of 7 billion yuan ($1.02 billion) from its parent company China Eastern Air Holding Co. to increase its liquidity.

TO THE POINT: The government vowed to improve farmers' living standards and underlined several tasks to be fulfilled this year in this regard. A majority of domestic individual investors suffered losses of more than 70 percent on their investments in mainland stock markets last year. Steel manufacturers were also unlucky in 2008 and lost a total of $1.87 billion in November alone. Despite pressure from the gloomy economic situation, more than 200 enterprises in Shanghai promised no layoffs. Tainted milk producer Sanlu declared bankruptcy. Insurance premiums in China hit a record high in 2008. A Swiss bank defied global financial uncertainties and set up a joint venture financial institution with China's Founder Securities.

By LIU YUNYUN

New Year's Resolution

The government outlined the 2009 rural work target at the end of December, which aims to maintain steady and relatively fast rural and agricultural development, strives to secure food safety, ensures supplies of farm produce and facilitates income increases for farmers in 2009.

The Central Government vowed to improve rural infrastructure construction in several areas, namely by providing sound water, electricity and gas supplies to rural households, building better roads in rural areas, and offering affordable homes to farmers.

Amid the economic slowdown, the government has encouraged migrant workers who have been returning home jobless to start their own businesses by offering them tax reductions and consultation services.

The government also will push for the establishment of large agricultural production bases for scale production to boost output, such as the building of cotton production bases along the Yangtze River and in other water-rich areas.

To bolster farmer's enthusiasm, the government pledged to increase various subsidies for them. It will continue raising minimum purchase prices for grains, increase subsidies for agricultural production, raise the main agricultural product reserves, and stabilize prices of agricultural products.

Stock Investors' Lament

The meltdown of the mainland stock markets last year led to huge investor losses.

A joint survey conducted by Shanghai Securities News and the financial website Stockstar.com indicates that more than 60 percent of individual investors in China suffered 70 percent losses on their investments in the mainland A-share markets in 2008.

The survey also indicates that only 7 percent of the 25,110 respondents had mild losses of up to 30 percent, while 6 percent made money from their investments.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index dived by almost 60 percent in 2008, causing a big headache for individual investors, fund managers and institutional investors.

The deteriorating external environment and the gloomy domestic economic outlook this year also have dampened investors' confidence.

To counterbalance the effect, the government introduced a series of policies to boost the financial markets and raised interest rates five times in the second half of 2008. But so far, the measures have had little effect.

Zhao Xijun, a finance professor at the Renmin University of China, said the stock markets would recover after investors' confidence had been restored.

It is not because of a lack of money in the market that share prices have dropped, because the Chinese save a lot of money, Zhao said. "It is also not a problem with the outflow of hot money, because that sum is quite small compared with the money held in the hands of regular inventors," he said.