MNI China Press Digest May 21: No Tightening, Property Tax, EU

The following lists highlights from Chinese press reports on Friday:

• The People's Bank of China will maintain the continuity and stability of its monetary policy to support the uneven recovery and manage external risks, said the Economic Daily in a commentary in an attempt to ease concerns of monetary tightening. M2 expanded 8.1% y/y in April, down from 9.4% y/y in March, PBOC data showed. The deceleration of April M2 was mainly due to the high comparison base same period last year when the central bank offered easier credit to Covid-hit producers and retailers, the newspaper said. If averaged with last April's figures, M2 and total social financing grew 9.6% and 11.9% respectively, which basically matched the nominal economic growth and maintained a reasonable level, the newspaper said.
• China may expand a pilot real estate tax to more cities such as Shenzhen and those of the tropical island Hainan, which have experienced rapid gains in home prices, the China Securities Journal reported citing analysts. The readout of a recent meeting of four ministries including the Ministry of Finance said to "actively and steadily promote real estate tax", more urgent than the previous expression of "steadily promoting", which could mean pilot expansion may come before the legislation, the newspaper said citing Jia Kang, dean of China Academy of New Supply-side Economics. The real estate market in Shenzhen is overheated, while Hainan's resource allocation should be more market-oriented given it's being developed into a free-trade port, the newspaper cited Jia as saying. Currently, only Shanghai and Chongqing have applied a pilot real estate tax.
• The EU won't let certain "radical emotions" dominate its eventual strategic choices with China even after the European Parliament passed a motion to freeze discussions on the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI), due to human rights issues in Xinjiang, the Global Times said in an editorial. China understands that these "radical emotions" have to be released and China should be patient and try to achieve "many things" through bilateral efforts, and expand economic and trade cooperation, the newspaper said.