China to Continue Moderately Easy Monetary Policy

The People's Bank of China (PBOC), or the central bank, announced Friday it would continue the country's moderately easy monetary policy while making it better-targeted and more flexible in the coming months of this year.

The PBOC made the announcement in its report on China's financial stability, which was released on the PBOC's website.

The PBOC said in the next stage it needs to skillfully handle the relationship between maintaining steady and rapid economic development, restructuring the economy and managing inflation expectations.

Chinese banks should continue supporting the country's economic restructuring, guard against risks, change profit structures, and improve the capital replenishing and restriction mechanism, the central bank said in the announcement.

The announcement noted that local government debt was rising quickly, corporate liquidity was decreasing with a high current debt ratio, and credit card advances were increasing despite mounting financial assets held by residents and the low debt level.

It said the global financial crisis had revealed limitations and gaps in the existing regulatory system. To prevent systemic risks, the central bank would combine macro and micro-prudential supervision in its policy package.