MNI China Daily Summary: Friday, December 20

     BEIJING (MNI) - EXCLUSIVE: China will focus on finalising and implementing

its preliminary trade deal reached with the U.S., rather than rushing into more

difficult phase two talks as has been suggested by President Donald Trump,

government advisors told MNI. "The signing of the phase one deal is not a

problem," said Wei Jianguo, former vice commerce minister. "The priority is for

both sides to implement the current accord," he said.

     LIQUIDITY: The People's Bank of China (PBOC) injected CNY150 billion via

14-day reverse repos with the rate unchanged at 2.65%, injecting a net of CNY150

billion as no reverse repos mature today.

     RATES: The seven-day weighted average interbank repo rate for depository

institutions (DR007) decreased to 2.2153% from Thursday's close of 2.3473%, Wind

Information showed. The overnight repo average fell to 1.7865% from Thursday's

2.0396%.

     YUAN: The currency weakened to 7.0115 against the dollar from Thursday's

7.0079 close. PBOC set the dollar-yuan central parity rate lower at 7.0020 on

Friday, compared with Thursday's 7.0025.

     BONDS: The yield on 10-year China Government Bonds was last at 3.1875%,

down from Thursday's close of 3.2325%, according to Wind Information.

     STOCKS: The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.4% to 3,004.94. Hong Kong's

Hang Seng Index gained 0.25% to 27,871.35.

     FROM THE PRESS: Car sales in China in 2020 may fall to 25.31 million from

25.83 million this year, the Securities Daily reported citing Xu Haidong, the

assistant secretary-general of China Automobile Association. China's auto

consumption is shrinking due to higher emission standards and lower purchasing

power as consumers pay more for houses, the newspaper said citing Jiang Yuan, a

deputy director of the industry division at the National Bureau of Statistics.

     The Export-Import Bank of China issued the first SME-oriented two-year

financial bond, worth CNY4 billion with a lower-than-market-average rate of

2.9%, the People's Daily reported. All funds raised will be lent to small and

medium companies in the real economy, the newspaper said. The bank will deepen

support for SMEs in all areas of financing, lending, and underwriting, the Daily

said.

--MNI Beijing Bureau; +86 (10) 8532-5998; email: archie.zhang@marketnews.com

--MNI Beijing Bureau; +86 10 8532 5998; email: william.bi@mni-news.com

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