CHINA´S CENTRAL BANK INJECTS $47 BN INTO FINANCIAL SYSTEM / THE FINANCIAL TIMES

China’s central bank injects $47bn into financial system

Largest intervention in almost a year sends bond yields down from 3-year high

Don Weinland in Hong Kong and Yuan Yang in Beijing


China’s central bank injected $47bn into its financial system, its largest intervention in nearly a year, in an effort to calm investor fears that Beijing’s crackdown on debt-fuelled growth would put a brake on the country’s rapid expansion.

Yields on China’s benchmark 10-year sovereign bond had risen above 4 per cent this week, a level not seen since 2014, following a sell-off that began following last month’s Communist party Congress, where the outgoing People’s Bank of China chief warned of the risks from excessive debt and speculative investment.

Although Thursday’s Rmb310bn injection saw the yield eased to 3.98 per cent from an intraday day peak of 4.015 per cent, analysts warned the PBoC had no clear target and that yields could rise beyond 4 per cent again without further easing.

“They don’t want the market to panic but I don’t think they have a set target,” said Zhou Hao, senior emerging markets economist at Commerzbank in Singapore.

Emerging markets have been suffering a rough patch as investors have retrenched following Venezuela’s recent bond default, Saudi Arabia’s threatening war against Iran and continued political turbulence in Turkey. The jitters have also resulted in price swings for commodities such as metals and oil.

But China has come under particular scrutiny after recent remarks by policymakers that they are determined to crack down on easy credit, which many analysts believe has created bubbles and oversupply throughout the economy.

Loose monetary policy in China has helped keep bond yields artificially low as central bank liquidity — often in the form of stimulus intended to support the economy — has flowed into financial markets.

But policymakers are concerned the easy credit has masked concerns over the build-up of bad debt and a slowdown in China’s economy. The PBoC’s recent decision to hold off on adding liquidity to the system has led to a correction in Chinese markets as those fears are priced in.

“There should be a credit-risk premium but yields have been distorted by all the liquidity,” said Kevin Lai, chief economist for Asia ex-Japan at Daiwa Capital Markets in Hong Kong. “This year they have stopped the liquidity and the bond market is only now catching up with reality.”

Yields remained steady during the party congress in October as banks, mutual funds and other state-backed institutions — often referred to as the “national team” for their role in stabilising the market — continued to buy sovereign debt.

But the buying has recently slowed amid signs the government planned to rein in credit growth.

“Investors, in particular mutual funds which have become the second-largest buyer of China’s government bonds, had previously bought sovereign debt because they had assumed the government would loosen [credit] in the fourth quarter in order to achieve the GDP growth target,” said Jonas Short, Beijing head of Sun Kai Hung Financial, an investment bank. “But the realisation that in fact there will be no loosening whatsoever has triggered the sell-off.”