Controversies regarding this question are triggered again after the Ministry of Finance Wednesday issued glamorous statistics showing that China's fiscal revenue for the first seven months surged 25.7percent to five trillion yuan.

By Caijing reporter Zheng Meng

»General Motors Co., posted the biggest quarterly gain Thursday with 1.3 billion U.S. dollars in net profit for the April~June period, after the first quarter’s earnings of 865 million U.S. dollars.

»Output increased 47 percent year-on-year, GM said in a statement.

»Along with the strong data, the company plans to file its initial public offering as soon as today, which may raise as much as $16 billion and make the IPO the second-largest in the U.S. history, according to Bloomberg.

General Motors Co., posted the biggest quarterly gain Thursday with 1.3 billion U.S. dollars in net profit for the April~June period, after the first quarter's earnings of 865 million U.S. dollars.

Output increased 47 percent year-on-year, GM said in a statement.

»China CITIC Bank, a mid-sized lender, said Wednesday it plans to raise up to 26 billion yuan ($3.8 billion) in a rights issue to replenish capital.

»The bank will sell as many as 2.2 shares for every 10 existing shares in Hong Kong and Shanghai, up to a total of 8.6 billion shares, it said in a statement.

The 3 percent target set by the government in 2008 should not be judged as a warning line.

Officials from China’s top economic planner said Thursday the 3 percent target set by the government should not be judged as a warning line, when interviewed by Caijing reporters.

»China Everbright Bank has set the issue price of its initial public offering at 3.1 yuan per share, the top end of an indicative range, Xinhua news reported, citing a company statement.

»Via the IPO, the bank is expected to raise up to 21.7 billion yuan ($3.2 billion) to become the country’s second-largest listing of the year.

Fresh rains hit Zhouqu County, in northwestern China’s Gansu Province that was devastated by landslides, as death toll continues to rise;human factors cannot be ruled out.

A soldier is trying to rescue a victim buried under the collapsed building.

»China’s fiscal revenue rose 25.7 percent, or 1.05 trillion yuan year-on-year to 5.11 trillion yuan ($750billion) in the January ~ July period, the Ministry of Finance said Wednesday.

»In July alone, the fiscal revenue was 778.32 billion yuan, marking an increase of 16.2 percent from a year ago, said the ministry in a statement.

The year-on-year 3.3 percent increase in CPI for July is moderate, compared with the forecasted GDP growth of 9 percent for the whole year.

China’s inflation pressures may ease as the role of short-term factors which have driven up the consumer price index by 3.3 percent year-on-year in July, is weakening in the next half of the year, according to economists.

World oil demand is expected to rise 1.57 million bpd this year to 85.91 million bpd.

World oil demand is expected to rise 1.57 million bpd this year to 85.91 million bpd, a gain of 1.9 percent, said the Energy Information Administration Tuesday in its new monthly report.

The EIA also raised its 2011 world oil demand growth estimate by 1.51 million from 2010 to 87.42 million bpd.