MNI China Press Digest May 12: Employment, LPR, Fiscal Policy

The following lists highlights from Chinese press reports on Thursday:

• China’s fiscal and monetary policies should prioritize stabilising employment using tax rebates, deferred payments of social security contributions and a reduction of financing costs, Yicai.com reported citing the State Council’s executive meeting late on Wednesday. The policy intensity should be no less than that in 2020 to prevent unemployment risks, the newspaper said citing Zhang Chenggang, professor at Capital University of Economics and Business. There is a record 10.76 million people coming into the job market this year. Small and medium-sized enterprises which make the largest contribution to employment, are under stress from the pandemic, the newspaper said citing Yao Kai, professor at Fudan University.
• The benchmark Loan Prime Rate is expected to fall by five basis points in May, as banks’ borrowing costs were guided down after the deposit interest rate reform, the Securities Daily reported citing analysts. Recently, large banks are encouraged to lower their high-level provision ratios, which also helps to drive down their debt costs, the newspaper said citing analysts. The 25 bps cut to banks’ reserve requirement ratios in April also helped, the newspaper added. The LPR quotation is set to be released on May 20.
• China still has fiscal policy space and tools to offset increased economic downward pressure, and it is unlikely to issue special treasury bonds in the rest of the year, Securities Times reported citing analysts. Choosing to issue such bonds will instead disrupt market expectations and feed through fiscal debt risks, the newspaper said citing Wu Chaoming, vice president of Chasing Institute. Though the budget deficit-to-GDP ratio was set as 2.8% earlier this year, the actual fiscal strength is sufficient and equivalent to a deficit ratio of 3.8% when taking into account profit turnover by SOEs, and the excess balance of last year, the newspaper said citing Zhang Yu, chief analyst of Huachuang Securities.