China’s regulators pledged to boost efforts to stabilize the housing and equity markets, as well as conduct more effective fiscal policies, in the wake of a meeting of top leaders that called for greater stimulus.
The government would promote the recovery of the property market through measures such as increasing demand and controlling the supply of land for new development, China News Service reported, citing Chinese Vice Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development Dong Jianguo (董建國) at a conference on Saturday.
The China Securities Regulatory Commission said it would enhance market monitoring for futures and spot trading, and strengthen supervision of margin trading, derivatives and quantitative trading, according to a statement on its Web site.
Photo: REUTERS
The Chinese Ministry of Finance said it would implement more effective and sustained fiscal policies next year, as well as improve macroeconomic regulations.
The government would also increase the issuance and usage of local government special bonds and expand their investment areas, according to a statement on its Web site.
The comments come after officials led by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) vowed to raise the fiscal deficit target next year following a two-day huddle of the Chinese Central Economic Work Conference in Beijing. For only the second time in at least a decade, they made “lifting consumption vigorously” and stimulating overall domestic demand their top priority.
China’s struggling economy has rebounded modestly in recent weeks on the back of more government support, with signs of improvement in consumption and factory activity.
However, overall confidence remains frail because policies have not been strong enough to free the economy from deflation.
In a sign of the challenges facing policymakers, China’s credit expansion unexpectedly slowed last month, figures showed on Friday. Loans extended to the real economy, which exclude those issued to financial institutions, fell to the lowest for the month of November since 2009. That offset elevated government bond issuance to drag down overall credit growth.
More easing is on the cards. China would cut interest rates and the reserve requirement ratio in a timely manner next year, the 21st Century Business Herald reported on Saturday, citing Wang Xin (王信), director of the research bureau under the People’s Bank of China (PBOC).
The central bank would increase the intensity of monetary and credit supply, Wang said at an event on Saturday, according to the report. Financing conditions for the real economy would also be relaxed further, it cited Wang as saying.
The comments came days after the Chinese politburo pledged to embrace a “moderately loose” monetary policy next year.
The central bank would also improve how it manages exchange rate expectations and guard against any shocks next year, a senior official said.
The PBOC would “step up expectation management on exchange rates and vigorously respond to external shocks,” the monetary policy department head Zou Lan (鄒瀾) told state media in an interview published on Friday.
In addition, the central bank would “resolutely prevent risks of overshooting in the exchange rate,” he said.
The yuan has fallen sharply since mid-October and slid on Thursday after a media report said authorities were considering letting it depreciate in response to the threat of a trade war with the US.
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce