MNI China Press Digest Mar 31: PBOC, RRR Cut, Special Bonds

The following lists highlights from Chinese press reports on Thursday:

• The People’s Bank of China is likely to increase support for the real economy through stable growth of overall credit expansion and encouraging structural policy support to sectors including small businesses, green development, farming and innovation, the China Securities Journal said interpreting a statement following the central bank's Q1 Monetary Policy Committee meeting. The central bank is also likely to keep ample liquidity with cuts to interest rates or reserve requirement ratios remaining possible, the newspaper said. The PBOC also reiterated policy support for meeting reasonable housing purchase needs and healthy real estate development, which could help the property market recover, said the newspaper.
• The PBOC may still cut reserve requirement ratios (RRR) in April and step up monetary policy support given a likely weakened economic performance in March, the Securities Daily said citing analysts. The yuan has remained relatively strong and cross-border capital flow has been overall stable, supporting a possible RRR cut, it said. The central bank has this week consistently added net liquidity injections to stabilize funding costs and support the real economy, the newspaper said.
• China urges faster issuances of special local government bonds to help boost investment and drive consumption as the economy faces increasing headwinds, Xinhua News Agency said late Wednesday following a State Council meeting. China has planned a total of CNY3.65 trillion local government special bonds for this year and seeks to have all the quotas allocated to local governments issued by the end of September, Xinhua said. China will also begin some qualified water conservancy projects, which will lead to CNY800 billion investment this year, Xinhua said citing the government.