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MNI China Press Digest Aug 18: Weaker Yuan, Special Bonds

MNI (Singapore)

The following lists highlights from Chinese press reports on Thursday:

  • The Chinese yuan is under short-term depreciation pressure, against a backdrop of unusually loose domestic liquidity, weakening Chinese economic data and as the U.S. dollar index remains at a high level, Yicai.com reported, citing an unnamed trader at a state-owned bank. The direction of the yuan will mainly be dependent on trade balance gyrations, and the currency may continue to trade sideways around current levels if exports can maintain their strong trend, the newspaper wrote, citing analysts. The yuan weakened after the PBOC’s surprise rate cut earlier this week, although it has moved away from post-cut lows, when measured against the U.S. dollar, the newspaper noted.
  • Local governments in China may use some of their remaining special bond quota in H2 to help boost infrastructure investment, as there is room for the issuance of over CNY1 trillion special bonds, the China Securities Journal reported, citing analysts. As of June, the level of outstanding local government special bonds nationwide stood at CNY20.26 trillion, compared to the government-set limit of CNY21.82 trillion, leaving room for ~CNY1.55 trillion of new special bonds to be issued, data compiled by the Ministry of Finance showed. Any such funds will still be mainly invested in infrastructure construction, after over 60% of the proceeds from special bonds issued in H1 went to infrastructure projects, the newspaper said, citing analysts.
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