Thursday 14 January 2010


CHINA TRIES TO COOL DOWN

Robert M Cutler

Asia Times, January 14, 2010

MONTREAL - China has now entered, or is trying to enter, a cooling phase of the economic stimulus that, according to reliable estimates, accounted for as much as 95% of the country's economic growth through the first nine months of 2009.

Yet according to Caixin Media, a Beijing-based media group, commercial banks issued loans worth 600 billion yuan (US$88 billion) during the first full week of January, and this despite instructions from banking regulators and the People's Bank of China (PBoC) to the contrary.

That figure, reportedly a new high in years, may have been reached in anticipation of further moves this week (or possibly even triggered them) by the China Banking Regulatory Commission and other banking and financial agencies. The PBoC announced on Tuesday that, to reduce market liquidity and reduce risks, the reserve requirement ratio for banks would be lifted by a half of a percentage point.

A Bloomberg News survey of economists had judged that Beijing would not take this move before April. Last autumn, lending to such industries as steel and concrete was banned, but now efforts to tighten credit more broadly are becoming more concerted.

(...) [artículo aquí]

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