Policy:
Yi Gang, deputy governor at the PBoC, has been appointed governor of the central bank, after the National People’s Congress (NPC) approved his nomination this morning, according to state media Xinhua.
Yi has been deputy governor of the PBoC since 2007, and led the State Administration of Foreign Exchange between 2009 and 2015, according to his profile on the PBoC’s website.
Upon his appointment, he told local media that his mission is to implement a prudent monetary policy, promote financial reform and opening up, and ensure the stability of the financial industry. He also hinted that the PBoC will announce more reforms in the near future.
“From now until the [start of the] Boao Forum in Hainan, there will be a series of reform and opening policies and measures,” he said.
The Boao Forum will take place between April 8 and April 11.
Liu He, the politburo member and top economic advisor who was tipped by analysts as a frontrunner to succeed Zhou Xiaochuan, was appointed vice premier.
Li Keqiang will continue as premier, after the NPC confirmed his appointment yesterday. Wang Qishan, formerly head of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the anti-graft ministry, was appointed vice president on Saturday. Wang served as the PBoC’s deputy governor in 1993-1994, and was vice premier between 2008 and 2013, according to his profile on Xinhua’s website.
Banks:
The bankers’ macroeconomic confidence index, a quarterly index published by the PBoC, stood at 81.9% at the end of the first quarter, up 2.8 percentage points from the fourth quarter of 2017.
Another survey by the central bank shows that 23.7% of bankers see monetary policy as relatively tight, up 4.6 points from the last quarter, whereas 73.2% of bankers consider the current monetary policy appropriate, down 5.4 points in the same period.
The PBoC surveyed executives from 3,200 banks, including those working for foreign banks in China.
Bonds:
Panama is planning to sell up to $500m worth of Panda bonds in the second half of 2018, Dulcidio De La Guardia, the country’s finance minister, told media last week. The tenor of Panama’s debut Panda will be no longer than 10 years, and the sovereign will seek to swap the proceeds back into the dollar, according to the media report.
International investors expanded their stockpile of bonds in the interbank market in February, according to data published by China Central Depository and Clearing (CCDC) and Shanghai Clearing House (SHCH).
Offshore investors held Rmb1.07tr ($169bn) of onshore bonds at the CCDC, which clears government bonds, up 42.28% year-on-year. Meanwhile, Rmb210.4bn of bonds at SHCH were held by international investors in the same period, up from Rmb208.6bn in January 2018.
Trade:
The US government insisted that the US-China Comprehensive Economic Dialogue is alive and well, after David Malpass, undersecretary for international affairs at the Treasury, mistakenly told media that Washington is shutting down the channel because of discontent with China’s lack of progress on market reforms.
The US official later retracted his remarks.
“I misspoke,” said Malpass. “[Treasury] secretary [Steven] Mnuchin has high-level talks with China.”
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