China's auto sales up 17.7% in 1st half of 2009

How is it that China's car industry is booming while ours is collapsing? Can you say - outsourcing.

Sales of made-in-China automobiles totaled 6.1 million units in the first six months this year, up 17.7 percent from a year earlier, the state-run Xinhua News Agency said Thursday.

According to figures released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, sales of such automobiles topped 1.14 million units in June, an increase of 36.5 percent on the year, the report said.

This is the fourth month in a row that sales of locally made automobiles surpassed 1.1 million units, Xinhua quoted CAAM as saying.

China manufactured 15.2 percent more automobiles in the first half of the year as compared to 2008, an increase CAAM said is due to a government stimulus package to boost domestic spending, Xinhua said.

That might explain why the U.S. dollar is becoming worthless. Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

The U.S. dollar traded for a time at a five-month low in the upper 92 yen zone Thursday morning in Tokyo as market participants sold it to shun risk on mounting worries about a quick economic recovery.

At noon, the dollar fetched 93.19-24 yen versus 92.83-93 yen in New York and 94.25-28 yen in Tokyo at 5 p.m. Wednesday.

The euro traded at $1.3897-3902 and 129.61-66 yen against $1.3879- 3889 and 128.91-129.01 yen in New York and $1.3887-3890 and 130.91-95 yen in Tokyo late Wednesday.

Continued concern about the prospects of an economic recovery in the U.S. and global economies prompted risk aversion overnight in New York, with the dollar plunging at one point to as low as 91.80 yen, its lowest level there since mid-February.

We're are in the process of being surpassed by China as an economy:

The number of US companies featured in a emminent business magazine's annual list of the world's top 500 global companies fell to its lowest level ever, Fortune magazine has said, while more Chinese firms appeared than ever before.

Signaling the effects of the devastating financial crisis on the US economy, a non-US firm topped the list for the first time in over a decade, with Anglo-Dutch energy giant Royal Dutch Shell coming in first.

The firm brought in 15 billion dollars (11 billion euros) more in sales than second place oil rival Exxon Mobil of the United States.

China, Asia's ever-soaring powerhouse economy, saw its fortunes rise across the board with a Chinese firm -- oil giant Sinopec -- appearing in the top 10 for the first time, the magazine reported Wednesday.