BizChina

One year after China launched the stimulus package and regained economic growth momentum, experts said the government was set to stick to pro-growth macro-economic policies while making minor adjustments in the prospect of inflation.

Liu Shijin, vice director of the Development Research Center of the State Council, or China's cabinet, told a forum held Thursday that many people were looking at the issue of price since both the consumer price index (CPI) and producer price index (PPI) would probably begin to rise at the end of 2009.

China has a new billionaire--and for the moment, a new richest man.

Xu Jiayan is chairman of Guangzhou property developer Evergrande Real Estate Group, which began trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Nov. 5. Shares of the company rose by more than 30% in its first day of trading, pushing the value of the 68% stake Xu and his wife own to $6.2 billion.

That pile of scratch is more than BYD's Wang Chuanfu's $5.8 billion fortune. Wang ranks No. 1 on our latest list of China's 400 richest people, which was published last night.

Wang shot to prominence after Warren Buffett invested in his car and battery maker, helping push the stock up six-fold in the past 12 months.

China now has 80 billionaires, up from 24 a year earlier, making it home to more 10-figure fortunes in the world than any other nation besides the U.S.

Like Xu, at least a quarter of China's billionaires have made their fortunes in real estate. There are also several others who joined the billionaire ranks this year thanks to strong initial public offerings.

Among them: Liu Zhongtian, whose aluminum products maker China Zhongwang raised $1.3 billion in an April IPO, and Zhang Zhirong, who listed his Glorious Property Holdings in October and now ranks 18th on the China 400.

Another new billionaire, Wu Yajun, plans to list her real estate development firm Longfar Group later this month. The company raised $206 million through a corporate bond offering earlier this year.

Xu, who is also known as Hui Ka Yan, founded Evergrande more than a decade ago and is responsible for formulating its strategies. He has over 25 years of experience in real estate.

Prior to Evergrande, he held positions at Wuyang Iron and Steel and Guangzhou Pengda Group. He is also an adjunct professor at Wuhan University of Science and Technology.

Xu had tried to take Evergrande public in 2008, but was forced to shelve those plans after the Chinese government succeeded in its attempt to cool off the nation's hot property market by tightening access to credit markets. (See “Olympian Bust.”)

The tight credit markets drove down property prices, sending real estate stocks reeling and making it virtually impossible for new real estate groups to go public.

There was a worry at the time that Evergrande, which was weighed down with a slew of expensive debt, might be in trouble.

But for now those dark days are long gone for Xu, who, at least the moment, seems to have captured himself to the top spot among his country's richest people.