MNI China Press Digest October 10: Spending, PBOC, Economy

The following lists highlights from Chinese press reports on Monday:

• Tourism spending during the week-long National Day holiday in China was only 40% of the pre-pandemic level, with hotel and air ticket prices falling to a five-year low as renewed Covid-19 infections spread to 177 cities in 31 provinces, Caixin reported. During the seven-day holiday, a total of 422 million domestic trips generated CNY287.2 billion of tourism revenue, a decline of 18.2% y/y and 26.2% y/y, respectively, and representing a recovery of only 60.7% and 44.2% of the levels seen in same period 2019, said Caixin citing data by Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Prices of hotels and air tickets dropped by 25% and 10% y/y, respectively, hitting the lowest point in the past five years, Caixin said citing data from Tongcheng Travel.
• The People’s Bank of China will promote a comprehensive opening of China’s financial markets for investors and improve the liquidity of yuan assets, according to an article published by the PBOC’s Macroprudential Policy Bureau on its social media account. This will be achieved by further simplifying entry processes for foreign investors, widening the assets that can be traded, and facilitating the holding of yuan assets by central banks. The PBOC will explore local currency settlement (LCS) cooperation with ASEAN and neighboring countries, promote the direct transaction of yuan against their currencies, and support the development of local yuan markets in other countries and regions, the statement said.
• Chinese bankers believe China’s economy is improving with the Banker Macroeconomic Heat Index rebounding in Q3 for the first time since Q2 2021, according to a nationwide banker survey released on the PBOC website. The index rose 2.1 percentage points from the previous quarter to 19.9% in Q3. Around 61% of banks considered the current economic climate “relatively cool”, down 4.2 pps from Q2. Bankers expect the heat index to rise to 29.7% in Q4, the survey showed. Meanwhile, the overall loan demand index was 59%, up 2.4 pps from Q2, though 9.3 pps lower than the same period last year. Borrowing demand from manufacturers, infrastructure builders and retailers was recovering, though not for property developers.