MNI China Press Digest, Aug 24: LPR, GDP, Real Estate Finance

The PBOC should further reform LPR policies to increase the reference value and boost the marketisation of deposit rates, Wang Jingwen, a researcher with China Minsheng Bank and an influential commentator, wrote in the Economic Information Daily. The central bank may enhance LPR curves by adding quotations for the periods between the current 1-year and 5-year, Wang wrote. The PBOC can emphasize the MLF's role as a future interest rate transmission tool by broadening its coverage to more small and medium sized banks and reducing credit stratification, Wang wrote.

China aims to achieve positive economic growth this year and help more than 100 million businesses while creating more than nine million jobs in urban areas, said Premier Li Keqiang during a visit to Chongqing city. The official Xinhua News Agency on Sunday reported comments from Li, who said that China would continue implementing policies to stabilise employment, finance, investment, and foreign trade while also managing market expectations and uncertainties around development.

China will step up the regulation of the real estate sector with new rules targeting the financing of developers, Economic Information Daily reports citing the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the PBOC. The moves mark the first time that regulators have focused on developers as China seeks to maintain the long-term stability of the housing market, the Daily said citing Yan Yuejin, a research director of Shanghai E-House Real Estate Research Institute.

China must place its emphasis on developing the real economy to make it more competitive, innovative and resilient to risks, the People's Daily said in an editorial interpreting remarks by Chairman Xi Jinping on his tour last week in Anhui province. China must push for the upgrading of its traditional enterprises, including manufacturing, through merging with new communications technology and orienting towards smart manufacturing and innovations in the industrial Internet, the Daily said.