WASHINGTON, Dec 7 (Xinhua): Global chief financial officers (CFOs) have upgraded China’s economic outlook to “Modestly Improving” in the last quarter of the year from “Stable” in the third quarter, showed a recent survey by the CNBC Global CFO Council.

The council, which gathers around 150 CFOs of some of the largest public and private companies in the world, said those CFOs responding to this quarter’s survey feel more optimistic about the Chinese economy as the country is embracing a steady economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, the CFOs have also improved the economic outlook for the United States, Canada and Britain from “Modestly Declining” to “Stable,” showed the survey released Wednesday.

In the current quarter, Japan, the rest of Asia and the Eurozone maintained their rating of “Stable,” whereas Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Russia maintained their rating of “Modestly Declining,” the survey said.

Around 65 percent of the CFOs surveyed regard the pandemic as the biggest external challenge for their companies, while some 86 percent believe that the hope of a widely available COVID-19 vaccine by next year and the current surge in confirmed cases have the greatest impact on their companies’ plans for 2021, it added.

Another report from Beijing adds;  China’s housing market showed signs of cooling down in November, data from a recent report showed.

An index indicating the search for housing nationwide dropped 3 percent in November from one month earlier, according to a report jointly released by online marketplace 58.com and housing information platform anjuke.com.

Specifically, the index for first-tier cities declined 2.4 percent from October, while that for second-tier cities decreased 2.9 percent, the report said.

Third- and fourth-tier cities saw a 3.3-percent decline.

The housing prices in 67 major cities averaged 16,420 yuan (2,506 U.S. dollars) per square meter last month, according to the report’s online monitoring results.

China’s bike exports hit 1.1 billion U.S. dollars during the third quarter, the highest quarterly tally in 25 years, buoyed by booming overseas demand.

From January to September, China’s output of bikes and electric bikes both posted double-digit growth, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.

Some domestic bicycle factories have operated at full capacity since June, but still failed to fill orders.

“Our sales surged 50 percent year on year during the June-October period,” said Yu Yuefeng, manager of a Shanghai-based bike company.

Cycling has become more popular worldwide amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as many people looked for an alternative to crowded buses and subways and residents unable to go to their gyms tried to find another way to exercise.

The pandemic is also driving a boom in electric scooters, which were previously a niche part of the overall market.

“From May to November, our orders more than doubled from a year ago,” said Xu Yue, manager of an e-scooter factory in east China’s Zhejiang Province.

China’s lottery sales reached 30.72 billion yuan (about 4.67 billion U.S. dollars) in October, up 11.5 percent from the same period last year, data from the Ministry of Finance showed.

Sales of welfare lottery tickets dropped 3.2 percent year on year to 12.28 billion yuan in October, while sports lottery sales gained 24 percent to 18.44 billion yuan.

From January to October, lottery sales amounted to 261.4 billion yuan, down 23.9 percent year on year.

Under China’s lottery management rules, money from ticket sales goes to administrative expenses, public welfare projects, and prize winnings.