Beijing: China’s central bank, known as the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), has injected $70 billion (500 billion yuan) into the money markets this month. This move aims to ease liquidity pressures in the fragile economy and encourage banks to lend more.

The PBOC announced on Thursday that it conducted these “outright reverse repurchase agreements” in October. These agreements last for six months. This is the first time the central bank has disclosed using this new tool, which was introduced earlier in the week.

Key Features of the New Liquidity Tool:

  • Purchasing Securities: The program allows the PBOC to buy various securities from primary dealers for up to one year.
  • Eligible Securities: These include sovereign bonds, local government notes, and corporate debt.
  • Filling a Gap: This tool provides longer-term liquidity compared to the existing seven-day reverse repurchase agreements.

Why the Injection Was Necessary:

  • Liquidity Drain: Banks faced a net liquidity drain of 481 billion yuan over the past three months due to repayments of the PBOC’s one-year policy loans, known as the Medium-Term Lending Facility (MLF).
  • Funding Pressures: Lenders are under pressure because of a decline in savings deposits and money shifting to stocks from lower-yielding debt instruments.

Ensuring enough liquidity in the market is crucial for supporting China’s economy, which is struggling with weak domestic demand and a persistent property crisis. The government is expected to issue more debt as part of a stimulus package, which could tighten liquidity in the interbank market.

Expert Opinions:

  • Becky Liu, head of China macro strategy at Standard Chartered Plc, stated that the PBOC’s injection is meant to provide additional liquidity that slightly exceeds the banks’ net repayments under the MLF program. She believes the new tool could play a larger role in expanding the PBOC’s balance sheet and injecting base money in the future.
  • Serena Zhou, an economist at Mizuho Securities, noted that the 500 billion yuan injection is equivalent to a 25-basis-point cut in banks’ reserve requirement ratio (RRR), which would free up cash for lending. However, she mentioned that the cost of funds from this new tool would be higher than the money released through RRR cuts.

The PBOC did not disclose the interest rate for the new outright reverse repurchase agreements in its statement.

Additional Measures Taken:

  • The central bank also purchased a net 200 billion yuan of sovereign bonds from the open market in October, according to a separate statement.
  • The PBOC is overhauling its policy framework by introducing the new reverse repo tool and launching a program to regularly buy and sell government bonds. This shift aims to align the central bank more closely with global peers and enhance its ability to influence market borrowing costs effectively.

As part of this transformation, the PBOC is downplaying the MLF program as its main policy tool for guiding interest rates and providing liquidity. Instead, it is focusing more on the seven-day reverse repurchase agreements.