MNI China Press Digest Jan 9: PBOC, Flights, Automotive Chips

Highlights from Chinese press reports on Tuesday:

• The People's Bank of China will use open market operations, medium-term lending facilities and reserve requirements among other monetary policy tools to provide “strong” support for reasonable growth in credit, said Zou Lan, head of PBOC’s monetary policy department in an interview with Xinhua News Agency. Meanwhile, it will smooth the transmission of funds and guide financial institutions to strengthen liquidity risk management, said Zou. The PBOC will optimise funding structure by guiding more credit for technology, green, pension, inclusive and digital finance, while revitalising inefficient financial resources via debt restructuring and market clearing, according to Zou.
• Authorities expect daily flights during China’s 2024 New Year festival to reach 16,500 a day, the same as 2019 and up 24% on 2023, according to Sun Wensheng, deputy director of the Comprehensive Department of the Civil Aviation Administration of China. Speaking at a press conference, Sun said the festival, starting Jan 26 and ending March 5, will see civil aviation passenger numbers hitting 2 million a day. The Yicai news agency expects the increase in flight volumes during the festival to be proportionally less than the increase in passenger volumes given the continued strength in high-speed rail. (Source: Yicai.com)
• China plans to formulate over 30 key standards for automotive chips by 2025, and 70 standards by 2030 to help build a safe, open and sustainable industry, according to the latest guidelines published by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Monday. The market size of the country’s automotive chips sector will likely reach CNY90.54 billion in 2024, expanding from CNY79.46 billion in 2022. (Source: Securities Times)