There is a growing expectation of decisive policy intervention following a series of weak Chinese economic data.
China’s State Council and a Politburo meeting will review the country’s economic performance in the first half of the year in July, market watchers anticipate.
Earlier this week, the Chinese National Statistics Bureau warned of “mounting pressure in domestic structural adjustment” in the world’s second-largest economy. China’s post-pandemic economic recovery has stalled as a number of economic indicators, including industrial production and fixed asset investment, have failed to meet expectations.
“I think they are probably considering an overall kind of stimulus package at the moment to boost not only investment, but also consumption using measures such as interest rate cuts,” Bank of America’s chief China economist Helen Qiao told CNBC Thursday.
“At the same time, they probably are considering [a] consumer voucher program and thinking about increasing the fiscal deficit in making fiscal policy more expansionary,” she added. “But that said, a lot of these need to be prepared and then rolled out. It’s not something readily available.”
For the first time in 10 months, the People’s Bank of China lowered its one-year medium-term loan rate by 10 basis points ahead of Thursday’s data release.
Following Monday’s rate cut, this is the second rate cut the Chinese central bank has announced in a week.
