MNI China Press Digest May 20: Yuan, Treasury Bond, Shanghai

The following lists highlights from Chinese press reports on Friday:

• The yuan may fluctuate between 6.7 to 7.0 against the U.S. dollar in the near term as the central bank may intervene to prevent any rapid depreciation, wrote Zhang Ming, senior fellow of the Institute of Finance and Banking at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in a blog post. Neither inflation nor the currency would be a constraint on the central bank to continue with monetary easing in the short term, as higher inflation is still half a year away, said Zhang. Monetary policy should be looser with rate and RRR cuts to match with fiscal expansion to boost the economy, Zhang added.
• China should issue CNY2 trillion of special Treasury bonds to fund epidemic control and subsidise consumer coupons to lower-income groups, the Securities Times reported citing analysts. Fiscal policy should strengthen support for small business financing by offering fiscal discounts, loan guarantees or increasing the write-off of non-performing loans, the newspaper cited analysts as saying. It is necessary to expand fiscal discounts for struggling companies, the newspaper said citing Wang Yifeng, chief banking analyst at Everbright Securities.
• Shanghai will focus on helping small and medium-sized enterprises to resume operations from the Covid-19 lockdown, the Shanghai Securities News reported. Many SMEs especially in catering, entertainment, maintenance, and logistics were hit hard by the epidemic, the newspaper said. The government will prioritise refunding taxes for SMEs, and it is estimated that enterprises in Shanghai will see relief totaling about CNY140 billion in 2022, the newspaper said. The government will also magnify financing guarantees for SMEs to help them renew their loans, the newspaper said.