MNI China Press Digest Aug 24: PBOC, Yuan, Afghanistan

The following lists highlights from Chinese press reports on Tuesday:

• The PBOC is likely to withhold major monetary and credit easing measures until next year, judging by the statement from a Monday meeting chaired by Governor Yi Gang, which emphasized "coordinating macro policies this year and next year", the 21st Century Business Herald said. The PBOC is seen unlikely to continue with another RRR cut in Q3, but possibly in Q4 if economic slowdown accelerates and debt defaults surge, the newspaper said citing Zhang Jiqiang, deputy research head of Huatai Securities. New loans may hit a new high in Q1, 2022, as more investment projects to stabilize the growth start, which require loans to back up, the newspaper said.
• The Chinese yuan will remain resilient supported by continued trade surplus in H2 and the higher-than-usual surplus in FX settlement and sales, which help overcome depreciation pressure from investors seeking refuge in the U.S. dollar, the Shanghai Securities News reported citing analysts. The yuan has performed stronger against other currencies under pressure from the U.S. Federal Reserve's possible slowing debt purchases, with the CFETS RMB Index up 0.32 from a week earlier, the highest since March 2016, the newspaper said.
• China's private companies are eager to invest in Afghanistan's economic reconstruction as the government's "successful diplomacy with the Taliban" laid the foundation for the safe operation of Chinese businesses there, the Global Times reported citing Chinese businesspeople in Afghanistan. However, Chinese state-owned companies are taking caution to be in line with the Chinese national strategy given Western governments' potential sanctions on the Taliban, the newspaper said. China can help Afghanistan generate self-dependent economic drive, even include the country, which sits along the Belt and Road Initiative route, into the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, the newspaper said citing Liu Zongyi, the secretary-general of the Research Center for China-South Asia Cooperation at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies.