The Star Online: Business
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- China central bank suggests faster tempo for freeing yuan
- Malayan Flour shares up on 3Q results
- China Nov HSBC flash PMI edges down to 50.4
| China central bank suggests faster tempo for freeing yuan Posted: BEIJING: With a shift in tone and language, China's central bank governor has dangled the prospect of speeding up currency reform and giving markets more room to set the yuan's exchange rate as he underlines broader plans for sweeping economic change. The central bank under Zhou Xiaochuan has consistently flagged its intention to liberalise financial markets and allow the yuan to trade more freely, even before the Communist Party's top brass unveiled late last week the boldest set of economic and social reforms in nearly three decades. But since the 60-point reform plan was released, Zhou has suggested urgency in pushing for change, although he has not provided any specific timetable. He promised on Saturday to "pull out all stops to deepen financial sector reforms". Dariusz Kowalczyk, an economist at Credit Agricole in Hong Kong, said the governor's comments could mean that the People's Bank of China (PBoC) will widen the trading band of the yuan in the near term. "That probably means there is more upside for the renminbi," he said. The yuan, also known as the renminbi, has risen this year to 6.09 per dollar from 6.23 at the end of 2012 and hit a record high of close to 6.08 in October. However, there was little evidence of any newfound freedom for the yuan in trading on Wednesday. On the one hand, the central bank set its daily fixing for the starting point of yuan trade at a record high, but dealers said open market gains were checked by state-run banks selling the currency, probably on behalf of the central bank. In addition, the daily fixing has been consistently weaker than the spot market, indicating the central bank is trying to rein in the currency's strength. "The PBoC is still intervening heavily to prevent the yuan from appreciating more," said RBS economists Louis Kuijs and Tiffany Qiu in a client note, referring to dollar trade inflows and speculation that are putting the yuan under pressure to rise. "Freeing up the currency would imply a very large appreciation versus the dollar, something for which we believe there would not be appetite right now." BASICALLY EXIT INTERVENTION Zhou's latest comments were released as part of a public guide book to the Communist Party's reforms, on sale in bookshops for 30 yuan (US$5). At more than 300 pages, it provides the full text of the Communist Party's blueprint and an explanation of the changes by President Xi Jinping. It includes articles by top officials, such as Zhou. In the guide book, Zhou says the central bank would gradually expand the yuan's trading band to help make the currency more flexible and market-driven – comments that repeat a long-standing central bank position. "We will widen the floating range of the yuan exchange rate in an orderly manner and increase the two-way flexibility of the currency," Zhou was quoted as saying. To that end, the People's Bank of China will "basically" exit from regular intervention on the currency market, he said, going slightly further than in previous comments when he had said it would reduce intervention. For years, the central bank has bought up foreign exchange, mostly dollars, to curb strength in the yuan fuelled by the country's export engine, building the world's biggest currency stockpile of US$3.66tril. Such currency intervention has been a key driver of money and credit expansion, fanning inflationary risks and housing bubbles. The yuan's trading band was last widened in April 2012 to allow the exchange rate to rise or fall 1% either side of the midpoint fixing announced daily by the central bank. "We must seize the favourable time window to quicken the pace of realising yuan convertibility in capital account," Zhou said. Full convertibility would allow the free movement of capital across China's borders, a demand of many of China's trading partners. The central bank has pledged to make the yuan "basically convertible" by 2015, but it has not made clear what that means. Some analysts caution against high expectations for the speed of financial reform, noting some policymakers fear allowing the currency to move freely too quickly could expose the economy to volatile capital flows, such as the ones blamed on the US Federal Reserve's economic stimulus programme. Analysts expect the central bank to unveil a long-awaited deposit insurance system by the end of this year or early in 2014 to pave the way for freeing up bank deposit rates, which are now subject to administrative caps. Such a scheme would protect depositors as Beijing is concerned some smaller lenders could go under as banks compete for deposits in a more open regime. Earlier this year, the central bank removed controls on lending rates. "We will choose a time when conditions are ripe to life controls on deposit rates, which we think is the final step of liberalising interest rates," PBoC Vice Governor Hu Xiaolian told a forum in Beijing on Wednesday. FAVOURABLE WINDOW The reforms are aimed at helping Beijing engineer a shift in the giant economy away from investment- and exports-led growth to activity fuelled more by consumption and services. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, in forecasting China's economic growth would pick up to 8.2% in 2014 from 7.7% this year, urged Beijing to quicken its reforms while growth is holding steady. "There is now a favourable window," the OECD said in an update of its global forecasts. While the Communist Party leaders set the direction for reform in a four-day conclave that ended last week, it will be up to government ministries and agencies to put them into effect. The head of the country's top economic planning agency promised fast results in an interview with the People's Daily, the Communist Party's official newspaper. "We should quickly launch a batch of projects in financial, oil, power, railway, telecommunications, resource exploration, public utilities to attract private-sector investment," Xu Shaoshi, chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission said – Reuters. |
| Malayan Flour shares up on 3Q results Posted: KUALA LUMPUR: Malayan Flour Mills Bhd's shares rose at midmorning on Thursday after the group posted a strong set of quarterly results on Wednesday. At 10.36am, its shares were up 10 sen to RM1.42 with some 1.43 millions shares done between RM1.39 and RM1.44. The FBM KLCI was down 6.83 points to 1,791.86. Turnover was 1.19 billion valued at RM536.133mil. There were 166 gainers, 334 decliners and 276 counters unchanged. The group said its earnings soared 112% on-year to RM24.89mil from RM11.69mil in the third quarter of the financial year ended Dec 31, 2013, on a turnaround of in its poultry segment. It also declared a dividend of six sen, less 25% tax, for the reported quarter. |
| China Nov HSBC flash PMI edges down to 50.4 Posted: BEIJING: Activity in China's vast factory sector grew at a milder pace in November on shrinking new export orders, a preliminary private survey showed on Thursday, bolstering expectations that the economy could lose some vigour in the fourth quarter. The Flash Markit/HSBC Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) fell to 50.4 from October's final reading of 50.9, but for a fourth consecutive months remained above the 50 line which demarcates expansion of activities from contraction. "China's growth momentum softened a little in November, as the HSBC Flash China Manufacturing PMI moderated due to the weak new export orders and slowing pace of restocking activities," said Hongbin Qu, chief China economist at HSBC. "The muted inflationary pressures should enable Beijing to keep policy relatively accommodative to support growth," he added in a comment accompanying the PMI. A sub-index measuring new export orders fell to a three-month low of 49.4 in November from 51.3 in October, reflecting lethargic external demand due to patchy recoveries in developed countries. Overall new orders also edged down slightly, which could suggest that a revival in domestic demand is not strong enough to offset faltering external orders. Among the 11 sub-indices in the survey, nine pointed to either slower growth or a contraction, including jobs. China has set an annual economic growth target of 7.5 percent for this year, which officials and economists have said is achievable, though the economy is firmly on track to post its slowest growth in 23 years. Many economists said the economy is likely to show a weaker momentum in the final three months of this year after a rebound between July and September, due to slowing credit growth and a fall off in restocking demand. Beijing has made it clear that it would accept a slower growth rate while it pushes ahead with economic reforms to wean the growth away from investment and export towards consumption. China's top leadership unveiled the boldest set of economic and social reforms in nearly three decades following a four-day conclave ended last week, which are expected to give the world's second-largest economy fresh drivers of growth. The final HSBC PMI for November is due to be published on Dec 2, a day after the release of an official survey. - Reuters |
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