China PBOC: To Strengthen Liquidity Mgmt, Curb Credit
--China will strengthen liquidity management and take steps to "appropriately" curb credit growth, the central bank said in its latest quarterly monetary report.
The People's Bank of China said in a statement posted on its Web site Tuesday that issuing central bank bills and adjusting banks' reserve requirement ratio are "necessary" and "viable" monetary tightening measures.
The PBOC monetary policy report said China worked on improving its exchange rate regime in the third quarter.
("*PBOC: To Improve Managed Float Exch Rate Regime," published at 0907 GMT, misstated the wording of the PBOC monetary policy report.)
The PBOC said relying on open-market operations alone won't be enough to tighten liquidity. The reserve ratio hike is a more proactive and stronger approach in managing liquidity, it said.
However, the central bank said the reserve hikes it implemented served to fine-tune market liquidity, rather than aggressively tightening it.
The PBOC's emphasis on further tightening comes as China's M2, the broadest gauge of money supply, grew 17.1% at the end of October from a year earlier, exceeding the official target for M2 to expand 16% in 2006.
"Maintaining a certain strength of liquidity management can help boost a steady and appropriate growth of money and credit supply as well as curb overinvestment," the central bank said.
It predicted China's economic growth will "slow a bit" but will "maintain a stable and rapid momentum." The gross domestic product is likely to grow by more than 10% this year, while the consumer price index is likely to rise around 1.5%, said the central bank.
China's economy surged 10.7% in the first nine months of this year, compared with the same period last year. CPI, the key gauge of inflation, rose 1.4% in October from a year earlier, slightly slower than the 1.5% rise in September.
Despite the slowdown, the PBOC said inflationary pressures still exist and the trade surplus remains a "prominent" problem.
The government aims to achieve a "basic equilibrium" in China's external balance, the PBOC said. In the first 10 months of this year, China's trade surplus reached US$133.62 billion, exceeding the US$102 billion surplus recorded for the whole of 2005.
The central bank reiterated it has been improving the managed float exchange rate regime and will maintain a prudent monetary policy. However, it didn't give any other hints on its yuan policy, as it used to do in previous monetary policy reports.
The central bank has in the past reiterated its official line that it will maintain a stable yuan while gradually increasing the currency's flexibility, but such words didn't appear in Tuesday's statement.
China is likely to maintain the steady pace of yuan appreciation, said Li Huiyong, Shenyin & Wanguo Securities' chief macroeconomic analyst.
Huang Yiping, an economist at Citigroup Inc. in Hong Kong, said: "The appreciation (of the yuan) won't be very fast." He predicted a 3% rise of the yuan against the dollar at the end of this year, and a 5%-7% rise of the yuan next year.
中国央行欲借新举控制信贷
中国央行(People's Bank of China)周一就在全国范围内向借款人发放贷款卡(Loan Cards)事宜向社会公开征求意见。贷款卡的发放是中国央行旨在控制银行信贷过快增长和强化信用信息管理的又一举措。
中国央行表示，贷款卡是该行发给借款人凭以向金融机构申请办理信贷业务的资格证明。
中国央行在其网站上发布的一份公告中宣布，申请人须提交税务登记证、注册资本来源的证明材料及最新的资产负债表供该行评审。
中国央行表示，将向合格的借款人发放贷款卡，有效期1年。
中国央行称，将把借款人申请贷款卡所产生的信息及其更新信息提供给企业信用信息基础数据库，以便金融机构能够及时、准确、完整地了解借款人的信用状况。
公告称，金融机构为无贷款卡的借款人办理信贷业务的将被处以人民币1万元以上3万元以下的罚款。
中国央行希望公众于公告发布之日起15日内将意见或建议反馈给该行。
中国央行公告称，贷款卡管理办法一经最终确定，将普遍适用于政策性银行、商业银行（含外资银行）、城市信用社、农村信用社、信托投资公司、财务公司、金融租赁公司、汽车金融公司以及经国务院(State Council)批准的其他机构的所有信贷业务。
