MNI BRIEF: PBOC To Boost Credit Support For Economic Growth

The People’s Bank of China will guide commercial banks to further increase credit support and to lower borrowing costs of the real economy as the recovery still faces uncertainties in the second half of the year, officials of the central bank told reporters at a briefing on Wednesday.

The PBOC will facilitate lenders to reduce the real loan rates via lowering their deposit costs by liberalising the deposit interest rate system. Meanwhile, it will help expand credit by using structural monetary tools and pushing policy banks to support big and key infrastructure projects, said Zou Lan, head of the PBOC monetary policy department, noting the central bank will keep liquidity at a reasonable and ample level.

Ruan Jianhong, head of the PBOC statistics department, said credit conditions will further improve in the second half as the central bank remains accommodative at a flexible pace, pointing out China's leverage ratio is expected to rise temperately due to counter-cyclical measures which would push up debt while the economic recovery is comparatively slow.