MNI China Press Digest Aug 26: Xi Urges Goals, Liquidity, RRRs

The following lists highlights from Chinese press reports on Thursday:

• Chinese President Xi Jinping urged the country to strive to achieve its social and economic goals this year as he made a series of comments while touring northern Hebei province, the Xinhua News Agency said. Xi stressed overall disability while seeking progress, wholistic development and prevention of the pandemic, so the country can be off to a good start to the 14th Five Year Plan, Xinhua said. Xi also emphasized protecting ecology, rural development, elderly care and region in his speeches, according to Xinhua.
• The PBOC has been cautious in injecting short-term liquidity as it has only increased net injections by month-end during the past three months, the Shanghai Securities News reported citing analysts. The PBOC net-injected CNY40 billion via reverse repos yesterday to fill in the month-end liquidity gap and smoothen the accelerated issuance of local government bonds, the newspaper said citing Ming Ming, research head of CITIC Securities. Analysts noted that though the central bank increased the volume of reverse repos operation, the operating interest rate is kept unchanged, indicating that prudent monetary policy remains, the newspaper said.
• The PBOC is likely to cut banks' required reserve ratios in Q4 to offset the maturing MLFs and may use a new policy tool supporting carbon emission reduction, Yicai.com reported citing Ming Ming, research head of CITIC Securities. The scale of reverse repo operations may not increase significantly, Ming added. Though the Federal Reserve is expected to start tapering by year-end at the earliest and gradually reduce the scale of asset purchases, the PBOC will still focus on domestic goals, the newspaper cited Ming as saying. The PBOC said last week it will increase credit support for the real economy especially SMEs, while the State Council urges to establish green monetary tools in July, the newspaper noted.