Business Digest, March 4, 2013

China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) would spend 15 billion yuan (HK$18.49 billion) to upgrade the quality of fuel it refines, general manager Zhou Jiping said. CNPC would upgrade the standard of its fuel to China IV from China III, Zhou said. The country's largest oil companies announced the upgrade plans after air pollution in Beijing hit hazardous levels on 20 days in January. Bloomberg

Mainland services industries grew at a slower pace in February, an official survey showed. The non-manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index fell to 54.5 last month from 56.2 in January, the Beijing-based National Bureau of Statistics and China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said in a statement yesterday. A survey reading above 50 indicates expansion.