Impact of Fed Policy Changes on China’s Markets is Limited

“The positive effect of China’s normal monetary policy stance is emerging,” Sun Guofeng, head of the People’s Bank of China’s (PBOC) monetary policy department, told a briefing. He said that policy was returned to normal after the COVID-19 epidemic in China was brought under control in May.

“The next step is to manage our own affairs well, and we must keep our monetary policy steady.”

China will keep the yuan’s exchange rate basically stable at a reasonable level, and step up prudent management of cross-border capital flows and guide market expectations.

There is also a need to keep China’s benchmark lending rate for corporate and household loans, Loan Prime Rate (LPR), at a reasonable level, Sun said, to anchor the money supply. PBOC has kept LPR steady for the 11th straight month in March.

Wang Xin, director of the central bank’s research bureau, said at the same briefing that the PBOC has launched a multi-lateral digital currency research pilot programme with monetary authorities in Hong Kong, Thailand and United Arab Emirates.

The pilot is to study the so-called payment versus payment (PvP) settlement in cross-border transactions of currency pairs using distributed ledger technology, according to Wang.

Wang said PBOC is also testing cross-border use of digital yuan with Hong Kong monetary authority.

PBOC vice governor Liu Guiping, who was also present at the briefing, said China will also gradually incorporate climate-related risks into the PBOC’s macroprudential regulatory framework.

“We will also push forward the green investment principles for Belt and Road projects, and strictly control the overseas investments in new coal-fire power plants,” said Liu, adding that Beijing will work with U.S. to push forward sustainable finance agenda for G20 countries.

(Reporting by Stella Qiu, Cheng Leng and Tony Munroe; editing by John Stonestreet & Simon Cameron-Moore)