Speculative capital retreated from property, while stock markets found the agricultural produce market ideal because of its small scale and flexibility. But increases in grain supply in the second half of the year will help stabilize the grain prices and ease inflation pressures, Yang said.

E-Commerce Escalates

E-commerce related Web use has accelerated in China from January to June as 142 million of the country's more than 420 million Netizens shop online, said the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) in its 26th report on China's Internet development.

By the end of June 2010, 33.8 percent, 30.5 percent and 29.1 percent of Chinese Internet users had used online shopping, online payment options and online banking services. Users of the three applications have all grown by around 30 percent in the first half of this year, much faster than other applications, the report said. In addition, search engine users reached 320 million, up 13.9 percent, and quite a number of them found things they want to buy online with the help of search services.

E-commerce also highlighted venture investments in China. China's e-commerce sector can expect a new round of investment this year, and a number of companies that have completed several rounds of fundraising will seek IPOs next year, said Zhang Yanan, an analyst with zero2ipo Group, an integrated service provider in China's venture capital and private equity industry.

Investments worth more than $600 million in 95 cases were injected into China's business-to-customer sector and relevant businesses between 2006 and 2009, said statistics from zero2ipo Group. In the first quarter of 2010 alone, the sector attracted 11 investments, and seven of them, with disclosed investment details, averaged $21.32 million each, higher than the 2008 and 2009 levels, said the company.

Lending to SMEs

The Chinese economy picked up momentum much faster than other economies—and loans to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were kicked up a notch as well.

SMEs in China were given new loans totaling 1.12 trillion yuan ($164.7 billion) in the first quarter of this year, up 22.9 percent year on year.

Du Jinfu, Vice Governor of the People's Bank of China, the central bank, said new loans for SMEs are growing faster than those for big companies as government measures to allow easier access to financing have begun to take effect.

Financing has long been a bottleneck in the development of SMEs, as banks prefer to lend money to big enterprises, particularly state-owned enterprises with good reputations.

Lenders used to shun SMEs, as they feared smaller companies might not be able to survive the crisis, leaving them with large debts.

The Chinese Government has taken various measures to help SMEs acquire financing. For instance, the central bank has imposed a differentiated reserve requirement ratio to the Rural Credit Cooperative, the major lender to SMEs, and encouraged innovation in SMEs' bond issuance.

Du said the government will learn from international practices and lend more to SMEs as they absorb most of the surplus labor from rural areas.

Top UAE Exporters

In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, China and India replaced long-standing Western countries to be the biggest suppliers of goods to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The Emirates Business 24/7 reported China's exports to the UAE stood at 47.8 billion dirhams ($13 billion) in 2009, accounting for about 10.7 percent of the UAE's total imports of 447.3 billion dirhams ($121.8 billion).

India took the dominant position in exports to the UAE. It exported a record high 61.5 billion dirhams ($16.7 billion) worth of goods to the UAE in 2009, accounting for around 13.7 percent of the UAE's total imports, the report said.

The export surge was a result of an aggressive marketing campaign by India and China, the competitive product price, proximity to the region, strong political relations, and persistent volatility in imports from key Western economies.