China’s central bank keeps interest rates steady

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has extended maturing medium-term policy loans with the interest rate at 2.75 percent, with markets anticipating a monetary ease in the upcoming months to support the recovering economy.

PBOC is keeping the rate on $18.08 billion worth of one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) loans. “Monday’s operation was meant to fully meet financial institutions’ needs and to “maintain reasonably ample banking system liquidity,” PBOC said.

The central bank added two billion Yuan with seven-day reverse repos, while maintaining borrowing costs at 2.00 percent.

There are growing concerns about a slow in momentum, following the initial bounce after the government relaxed strict pandemic measures in December, which have started to stimulate credit demand in China.