BEIJING: China’s central bank said the economy and financial markets are generally stable, though the environment is still “complex”, adding separately that risk prevention should be given greater emphasis. The People’s Bank of China also said the recovery in major developed nations is continuing, according to a statement released on Tuesday after a meeting of the advisory monetary policy committee led by its governor, Zhou Xiaochuan. The language was a change from the first-quarter report, which said the complexity of the economic environment shouldn’t be underestimated, and that the recovery in developed nations was accelerating. Reiterating it will stick to “prudent and neutral” policy, the PBOC said in the statement that it will “keep liquidity relatively stable and credit growing at a reasonable pace”. Meanwhile, the monetary authority will “closely follow the latest developments” in the domestic and global economies while keeping an eye on international capital flows, it said. The central bank said in a separate report released late on Tuesday that cross-sector risks should be closely monitored and coordination of financial supervision should be strengthened to form a “joint force” that prevents gaps in financial regulation.
China should better detect financial risks, especially those involving the quality of banking assets and the use of insurance funds, according to the 2017 financial stability report. Economists have raised their second-quarter growth estimates, with the median forecast in a Bloomberg survey now seeing 6.8 per cent expansion before the official report due for release on July 17.
