MNI China Press Digest Mar 1: 5% Growth, Liquidity, Housing

Highlights from Chinese press reports on Friday:

• Authorities at the National People's Congress will target around 5% GDP growth this year to raise expectations and avoid a negative confidence spiral, according to analysts and experts interviewed by Yicai. Zhang Jun, chief economist at China Galaxy Securities, expects authorities to set the country's deficit rate at 3.5% and noted that after two years of decline, the real-estate sector will have less drag on the economy than before. NPC members Gao Zicheng, president of the All-China Lawyers Association, and Cao Peng, chairman of JD.com's technical committee, both said they will propose more support for private enterprises at the congress.
• The Chinese economy will experience little pressure on capital supply and demand in March, while some pressure may be seen during the quarter-end assessment for banks, Securities Daily reported citing analysts from CITIC Securities. The scale of new government bonds is similar to last year’s level. Meanwhile, banks may further lower deposit rates to reduce their liability cost, while credit issuance will slow from the beginning of the year.
• Up to 276 cities in 31 provinces have launched a real-estate financing mechanism to propose about 6,000 housing projects eligible for funding to commercial banks within their regions by the end of February, China News Service reported citing the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development. Over CNY200 billion of loans have been granted so far. The ministry urged all prefecture-level cities to establish the mechanism by mid-March, while financial institutions should strengthen the closed-loop management and prevent loans from being misappropriated, the newswire said.