MNI China Press Digest, July 27: Housing, Structured Deposits

The following lists highlights from Chinese press reports on Monday:

China's housing regulations are likely to be tightened in H2 and local authorities are unlikely to be allowed to relax the rules as they did in HI, the 21st Century Business Herald reported. This signal was given by Vice Premier Han Zheng, who said at a recent meeting on housing that houses are not for speculation and the government would not use real estate as a stimulus, the newspaper said.

Chinese banks are under increasing regulatory pressure to cut structured deposits this year by trillions of yuan, the Shanghai Securities News reported. Authorities are targeting structured deposits because they have pushed up banks' debt-servicing and financing costs, reducing their ability to properly serve the real economy, the newspaper said. Chinese banks' structured deposits plunged in June under sustained supervisory pressure, dropping by about CNY1 trillion in May to a remaining balance of CNY10 trillion at the end of last month, the newspaper said.