China central bank says it will fine-tune policy to support economy

[BEIJING] China's central bank will fine-tune its policy to provide ample and appropriate liquidity for the economy, a senior bank official said on Tuesday.

Sheng Songcheng, head of the statistics department at the People's Bank of China, also said recent bank reserve requirement and interest rate cuts helped boost M2 growth, a broad measure of money supply, according to a transcript of a PBOC briefing seen by Reuters.

Ample liquidity in China's interbank market and falling interest rates have lowered financing costs in the real economy, with companies' general cost of financing falling to 6.32 per cent at the end of June from 7.0 per cent at the end of 2014, Mr Sheng said.

Recent central bank moves to cut interest rates and banks' reserve requirements also helped boost loan demand, Mr Sheng added.

Earlier on Tuesday, the central bank said M2 grew at 11.8 per cent in June from a year earlier, beating forecasts.

REUTERS