MNI China Press Digest Aug 4: RRRs, Consumer Finance, US Wall

The following lists highlights from Chinese press reports on Wednesday:

• The PBOC is still likely to cut banks' reserve requirement ratios to provide the market with more liquidity in the second half, as policymakers shift monetary policies to marginal loosening to offset the lack of effective demand, especially the slow recovery of consumption and investment, the 21st Century Business Herald reported citing Liu Yuanchun, the vice president of Renmin University of China. China's GDP growth may slow to 6-6.5% in Q3 and 5.4% in Q4, resulting in annual growth of about 8.2-8.5%, Liu was cited as saying. Achieve 5.5-6% growth in 2022 won't be easy, and the government should promote the implementation of key investment projects under the 14th Five-Year Plan to help stabilize growth, the newspaper said citing Liu.
• Chinese consumer finance companies in many places are required to keep the annual interest rates of their products under 24% after receiving window guidance by local banking regulators in a bid to help boost the relatively weak consumption and lower financing costs, as some companies still set the rate close to 36%, the Securities Times reported citing sources. Consumer finance companies usually use the 24% or 36% upper limit of judicial protection for private lending as the reference standard for product design, while insiders believe it is still profitable for these companies to set the rate at 24% as the median capital cost in the industry should be 6% or 7%, the newspaper said.
• China can tear down the "Western Wall" built by the U.S. and the West against China given that the West stands to gain many benefits from doing business with China, the Global Times said in an editorial. China should distinguish the conflict with the U.S. from friction between China and the West. It should show the world they are strategically different. In this way, China can make it more difficult for the US to turn the whole Western camp against China. China should engage in more communication with other Western countries from the perspective of cultural diversity and reduce specific friction points, the officially-run tabloid said. China should collaborate more with Western countries other than with the U.S., increase the attractiveness of the Chinese market to countries like Germany and France, it said.