China Acted To Ensure Bank Liquidity as Crisis in the Banking Industry Led to Market Panic and Risk Aversion

SHANGHAI, Mar 20 (SMM) - To ensure bank liquidity, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) lowered the deposit reserve ratio of financial institutions by 0.25 percentage points.

Three banks in the US shut down last week amid the banking crisis and market liquidity issues triggered market panic. Credit Suisse default risk erupted in Europe, resulting in strong risk aversion in the market and a sharp drop in copper prices. At the end of the week, as overseas institutions took liquidity support, market panic eased and copper prices stopped falling. The European Central Bank (ECB) announced a further 50-basis-point interest rate hike, in line with market expectations. ECB said that inflation would remain excessively high for a long time, and lowered its inflation forecast for the 2023 in the eurozone from 6.3% to 5.3%, while raising its GDP growth forecast from 0.5% to 1%. The euro rose slightly, while the dollar fell, leading to a slight rally in copper prices.

The recovery momentum of domestic consumption is still strong. According to the economic data from January to February released by the Bureau of Statistics, industrial added value has rebounded, the real estate sector has ushered in a small "boom", and the raw material manufacturing industry has steadily increased.