China's large open market operations to boost market confidence

BEIJING -- After setting a record of 1.2 trillion yuan ($171.4 billion) in one-day open market operations on Monday, the People's Bank of China continued to release 500 billion yuan of liquidity via reverse repos on Tuesday, demonstrating the central bank's determination to stabilize market expectations and boost market confidence.

After taking into account the reverse repos that matured in the two days, the net liquidity injection into the banking system stood at 550 billion yuan, including 150 billion yuan of net injection on Monday and 400 billion yuan on Tuesday.

The liquidity boost can lower the interest rates in the money market and the bond market, and will help push down the interest rates in the loan market, which is conducive to cutting capital cost, easing the financial pressure on enterprises, especially small and micro businesses, expanding the scale of financing and supporting the real economy, the central bank said on its official WeChat account.

Those moves were made amid China's efforts to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, earning praise from international organizations.

"The Chinese authorities have policy space to respond and have announced a sizeable injection of liquidity, which should help mitigate the costs to economic growth," the World Bank said Monday in a statement.

The organization said it supports China's efforts to respond including its efforts to maintain resilience in its economy.

Also on Monday, the International Monetary Fund expressed its support for China's efforts to tackle the outbreak, and said it is confident that China's economy "remains resilient."

The open market operations have effectively cut borrowing costs in the interbank market, as indexes have shown.

The overnight Shanghai Interbank Offered Rate (Shibor), which measures the borrowing cost of China's interbank market, decreased 23.1 basis points to 2.273 percent on Tuesday.

Stock markets also responded positively in the morning session after the operations.

China's major stock indexes ended higher in the morning session Tuesday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index ending 0.21 percent higher at 2,752.44 points. The Shenzhen Component Index gained 1.74 percent to end at 9,949.95 at midday.