While the volume of its fruits harvested in China－blueberries, raspberries and blackberries－grew from a meager 500 metric tons in 2016 to around 10,000 tons last year, the company aims to triple that number by 2025 in light of the "huge consumption potential", said Jae Moon Chun, Driscoll's vice-president and general manager in China.

"We are living in a fast-changing world - a world assailed by political, ethnic and religious conflicts and environmental degradation," said Dana Meager, state secretary of the Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic.

Previously, the family of four, including his father, mother and elder sister, lived mainly on the meager salary of his father, who used to toil as a road maintenance worker.

- A decade ago, villagers in the mountain township of Shichao, in Southwest China's Guizhou province, were knee-deep in poverty, scraping a meager living by growing corn.

"Pressure and difficulties facing small and micro-sized enterprises are especially obvious," Ma said, adding that major problems facing SMEs, especially small and microsized firms, include rising costs, meager profits, financing difficulties and labor shortages.

"Although export orders are there, the profits are meager, and I feel panic when producing those goods," said Zhong.

Although pre-owned home trading prices were still below the average level of the previous year, meager growth is projected to appear in February, Chen said.

The meager figure, however, means that the home index has ceased its four-month decline and shown signs of turning positive in the coming months," said Yan Yuejin, director of Shanghai-based E-house China Research and Development Institution.

He added the only meager income they currently get is from selling instant rice noodle products on e-commerce platforms.

"Due to the particular 'rich coal, meager oil and deficient gas' energy structure, China's crude oil production grew slower than consumption growth in recent years," said Zhang Jianhua, director of the National Energy Administration.

"We are in a dilemma because foreign-run cruises are retreating from China due to meager profits" while China does not yet have large numbers of oceangoing cruise ships.

During the 1960s, China's total grain output had increased, but by today's standards it was meager.

The price volatility swallowed up the already meager profits of car dealerships and intensified the operating pressure on car dealerships.

Despite the meager growth in operating revenue, the Shanghai-listed company's net profit attributable to shareholders rose 22.9 percent to 8.27 billion yuan in the same year.

In the first half of January, automakers sold 187,000 NEVs at wholesale prices, which was up a meager 3 percent year-on-year, but marked a 38 percent slump from the same period last month, the China Passenger Car Association said on Thursday.

In 2022, vehicle makers in China sold 26.86 million units, registering a meager growth rate of 2.1 percent year-on-year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

For international brands, including Toyota and Ford, NEVs seized a meager 3 percent in that month in China.

Statistics showed NEVs accounted for 35 percent in local Chinese brands' sales in August, and their proportion hit 24 percent of premium vehicle sales, but the figure was a meager 2.7 percent in the volume of international brands.

Ford will be showcasing its recently released made-in-China Mustang, the Mach-E. At its most meager setting, the Mach-E can eek out over 600 km on a single charge.

Though meager, the growth in June continued the momentum first spotted in May this year, a sign that the passenger vehicle segment is recovering from the pandemic and consumers have restored financial confidence.

Great Wall Motors saw a meager growth of 0.69 percent from 2018, with its total sales hitting 1.06 million units.

Its joint venture Changan Ford, formerly the cash cow of the carmaker, saw a 67 percent slump in its sales in the first half of the year, totaling a meager 75,200 units.

Sales stood at 104,000 units, according to the statistics of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, bringing in a meager 1.8 percent growth year-on-year.

The growth of new energy vehicles slowed pace last month, a meager 1.8 percent growth year-on-year, with sales standing at 104,000 units.

And so the meager 3.42 percent increase in used car sales reported by the China Automobile Dealers Association for March showed a considerable slowing in the market.

But exports of Haval SUVs and vehicles of other brands at the company have been meager, with 47,000 sold last year, accounting for some 4.5 percent of its total sales.

"The Chinese market has entered into a phase of meager growth since last year, but I think Chinese brands should seize the time to improve themselves," said Shi Jianhua, deputy secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

Despite the fall in July and August, passenger car sales totaled 15.19 million units from January to August, maintaining meager growth of 2.6 percent year-on-year.

In the same period, sedan sales posted a meager 0.8 percent growth rate, with 2.86 million units sold, but remains the largest segment by size.

Manufacturers association says road to expansion made more arduous by purchase taxCar sales in China edged up to a record 28.88 million units last year－but the growth rate plunged to a meager 3 percent year-on-year, the lowest point in six years－according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

In the same period, the overall growth rate for China's automotive industry was a meager 3.6 percent.

Vehicle sales posted a meager 0.7 percent year-on-year growth in China during November to 2.96 million units, according to data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers on Monday.

Even that meager growth would have been impossible without sports utility vehicles, whose sales grew 14.5 percent year-on-year to 9.09 million units while sedan sales dipped 2.3 percent.

Even this meager growth was impossible without soaring SUV sales, a sector which has seen continued growth for years.

China sold 800,000 cars overseas last year, a meager 3 percent of what it sold in the domestic market.

Even this meager growth was impossible without soaring SUV sales, which have not changed since the start of the year.

The percentage at FAW was a meager 7 percent.

With 11.25 million cars sold from January to June, the segment edged a meager 1.6 percent.

Prior to this, he traveled across the country with bags of costumes, selling them to photography studios, but the profits were meager.

The report said a secondary listing has a meager impact on the share price and market value of TMT companies, except for the minor decline caused by the macro environment, said Li Kang, EY China assurance partner and China North head of TMT IPO service.

Foreign purchases of Chinese bonds will likely rise further as the low-yield environment in global bond markets and the meager expected returns from core government bonds have prompted yield-chasing investors to look at other options.