MNI China Press Digest, April 3: GDP, RRR Cut, Loans

     BEIJING (MNI) - The following lists highlights from China press reports on

Wednesday:

     China's GDP is expected to grow by 6.3% y/y in Q1 and 6.4% for the whole

year, the Securities Daily reported today. The newspaper cited Guo Xiaobei,

analyst at the Research Institute of China Minsheng Bank, who said the growth

would be driven by fiscal measures. Recovering infrastructure investment and

robust property investment would be the main driver of growth in Q1, Guo said.

     The PBOC will be more cautious in easing the reserve requirement ratio as

it responds to the false rumour of an RRR cut, Securities Times has reported. In

a front page commentary, the newspaper says the false information may trigger

speculation in the housing market. This could create additional deprecation

pressure on the yuan exchange rate, the newspaper said.

     Half of the new loans by the six largest state-owned banks last year were

mortgage loans, The Paper reported. The newspaper named the six banks as ICBC,

CCB, ABC, BOC, BCM and PSBC, and said their mortgage loans increased by CNY2.534

trillion last year. Less than one-third of the new loans were to corporates,

which were lent CNY1.488 trillion. The six banks increased their loans by a

total of CNY5.131 trillion last year, the newspaper said.

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

--MNI Sydney Bureau; +61 405322399; email: lachlan.colquhoun.ext@marketnews.com

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