PM, PRESIDENT DISCUSSIONS Kathmandu, 3 Dec,: Prime Minister Baburam Bhattara held consultations with President Dr. Ram BaranYadav Monday amid a continuing political crisis. The president asked the prime minister on any progress on forming a consensus government headed by a consensus prime minster. The premier briefed the president on efforts to form a consensus government by this week. They also discussed appointing temporary judges to the supreme court by bringing an ordinance mid shortages of judges to settle pending cases at the apex cot without parliament to confirm appointments The second deadline to select a consensus prime minister by the end of the weel , it appears, will also e missed. nnnn. SHARE PRICE SLUMP CONTINUES Kathmandu, 3 Dec.; Share price slump continued Monday on the second day of weekly five-day trading. Nepse closed at 481.43 points after slipping2.37 percent. Trade volume was also low. Only 40,079 shares were traded for Rs.15.739 million in 328 transactions. nnnn UML CHAIR ASKS NC TO NAME ITS CANDIDATE FOR PM Kathmandu, 3 Dec.: UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal Monday asked main opposition NC to name its candidate for prime minister failing which the second opposition party will name its choice. ‘There are plenty of capable candidate,” Khanal said in Dhamak, Jhapa. nnnn. PRICE OF SCHOOL TEXT BOOKS FIXED Kathmandu, 3 Dec.: The Textbook Price Fixation Committee (TPFC) today [Monday] endorsed the government decision on price of school textbooks, The Himalayan Times reports. Last year, publishers and distributors had put stickers on the books and pasted the price arbitrarily. The government banned the use of stickers on textbooks and made it mandatory to print the price on the cover so that the guardians and students were not cheated. Textbooks must also be priced the same all over the country. In March, TPFCprepared a report with price ceiling of textbooks and sent it to the Ministry of Education for final approval. Publishers had urged the ministry to increase the price from 20 to 25 per cent, but the committee increased the price by only five per cent. The ministry then sent the increased price ceiling to the committee, which approved it and decided to implement it with effect from today. If the text has a single colour, each page of the book will cost 89.25 Paisa. Each page with texts in two colours will cost Rs 99.75 paisa and each page with text in multi-colour will cost Rs 1.15 paisa. The cover page, acknowledgment, table of contents and pages without page number will be free. Suprabhat Bhandari, president, Guardians Association of Nepal said this would help check black-marketing of textbooks. He said publishers would have to publish the price of school textbooks in one of the daily newspapers before the academic session. The report said if the book had 64 pages, its cover would have to weigh 100 grams and if it had more than 64 pages, the cover would have to weigh 250 grams. The size of textbooks would be the same (18x25 cm) as recommended by the committee. “The price ceiling is only for the new fiscal year 2070/71, it will be revised next year” Bhandari said, adding, “The books will be published by mid-November every year.” Nnnn CHINA GROWTH REVIVING Kathmandu, 3 Dec.: The pace of activity in China's vast manufacturing sector quickened for the first time in 13 months in November, a survey of private factory managers found, adding to evidence that the economy is reviving after seven quarters of slowing growth, Reuters reports from Beijing . The final reading for the HSBC Purchasing Managers' Survey (PMI) rose to 50.5 in November from 49.5 in October, in line with a preliminary survey published late last month. It was the first time since October 2011 that the survey crossed above 50 points, the line that demarcates accelerating from slowing growth. The final HSBC reading follows a similar survey by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released this weekend, which showed the pace of growth in the manufacturing sector quickening. The official PMI rose to a seven-month high of 50.6 for November, from 50.2 in October. "This confirms that the Chinese economy continues to recover gradually," HSBC's chief China economist Hongbin Qu wrote. An official PMI survey of China's non-manufacturing sectors also ticked up, to 55.6 in November from 55.5 in October, led by expanded activity in construction services. But growth in air and rail transport and food and beverages both slowed. While a recovery in growth appears possible, there are troubling signs that China is still relying too much on state-led investment rather than the more dynamic private sector. Growth accelerated for large firms for the third month in a row, but medium and smaller companies saw a retrenchment, with the decline more pronounced for the smaller firms, the NBS said in a not accompanying its official manufacturing PMI survey. "The improving numbers are mostly because of government investment," said Dong Xian'an, economist with Peking First Advisory, referring to the official PMI. "From the second quarter the government has unleashed a lot of projects, and that has started to be felt in the economy, but it's not a very healthy recovery yet." In another sign that demand remains lackluster, an HSBC sub-index for output prices fell despite a rise in a different sub-index for input prices, indicating that firms are unable to pass rising costs on to buyers. "Whilst we feel that the economy has been stabilized through the short-term, we feel that the manner in which activity has been revived will retard China's economic reform agenda and make the transition onto a sustainable footing all the more tricky," wrote Xianfang Ren and Alistair Thornton of IHS Global Insight. Smaller and private firms are still pleading for greater access to credit and investment incentives, which have gone disproportionately to the state sector, particularly since the financial crisis of 2008-2009. Government intervention to mask debt problems where they do appear runs the risk of a socialization of losses, the IHS Global Insight analysts warned. "Production can continue (hence contributing to GDP), and employment can remain tight. Our fear, therefore, is that whilst activity is resuming, economic efficiency is declining. This has negative longer-term consequences." Overall, China's economic health has improved since September, with an array of indicators from factory output to retail sales and investment showing Beijing's pro-growth policies are starting to gain traction. Output, new orders and new export orders all improved, the official PMI showed, but a sub-index tracking employment deteriorated. Private firms generally account for more new jobs than does the state sector. China's annual economic growth dipped to 7.4 percent in the third quarter, slowing for seven quarters in a row and leaving the economy on course for its weakest showing since 1999. Given the recent signs of recovery, many analysts expect the economy to snap out of its longest downward cycle since the global financial crisis, and start to trend upwards in the fourth quarter. The end of a destocking cycle and a greater pace of investment are expected to keep driving up domestic demand. Economists also warn of downside risks from still cloudy external markets. The European debt crisis and listless U.S. economy continue to crimp demand from China's two largest trade partners. China's central bank has moved cautiously in easing monetary policy to underpin economic growth, wary of reigniting inflation and fanning property prices which are still high. It cut interest rates twice in June and July and lowered banks' reserve requirement ratio by 150 basis points in three stages since last November, but has refrained from further cuts since July. The authorities have opted to inject liquidity via open market operations to pump short-term cash into money markets. The official PMI generally paints a rosier picture of the factory sector than the HSBC PMI because the official survey focuses on big, state-owned firms, while the HSBC PMI targets smaller, private companies. There are also differing approaches to seasonal adjustment between the two surveys. nnnn