China’s central bank reaffirmed it will pursue a loose monetary policy to support the country’s economic recovery, after shares recorded their biggest drop in eight months.
The People’s Bank of China published remarks by Vice Governor Su Ning (蘇寧) after the market slumped 5 percent on Wednesday, in part because of concerns that banks had been ordered to rein in aggressive lending.
The plunge, which was the largest single-day percentage decline since Nov. 18, also had a knock-on effect on Wall Street and on other stock markets around the world.
China will “steadfastly continue to apply an appropriately loose monetary policy to consolidate the economic recovery momentum,” Su was quoted as saying in a statement posted late on Wednesday on the bank’s Web site.
State media reported this week that two top Chinese commercial banks — Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (中國工商銀行) and China Construction Bank (中國建設銀行) — had set ceilings for new loans this year as regulators raised fears over credit risks.
If put in place, the ceilings would imply the banks had already issued about 80 percent of their total lending for the year in the first half and credit growth would slow sharply in the second half.
Su stressed at a meeting in Shanghai that market-based tools rather than government-set lending quotas, which worry investors, would be used to ensure appropriate credit growth and facilitate economic growth, the statement said.
The Taipei MRT is open all night tonight following New Year’s Eve festivities, and is offering free rides from nearby Green Line stations. Taipei’s 2025 New Year’s Eve celebrations kick off at Taipei City Hall Square tonight, with performances from the boy band Energy, the South Korean girl group Apink, and singers Gigi Leung (梁詠琪) and Faith Yang (楊乃文). Taipei 101’s annual New Year’s firework display follows at midnight, themed around Taiwan’s Premier12 baseball championship. Estimates say there will be about 200,000 people in attendance, which is more than usual as this year’s celebrations overlap with A-mei’s (張惠妹) concert at Taipei Dome. There are
LOOKING FOR WHEELS: The military is seeking 8x8 single-chassis vehicles to test the new missile and potentially replace the nation’s existing launch vehicles, the source said Taiwan is developing a hypersonic missile based on the Ching Tien (擎天) supersonic cruise missile, and a Czech-made truck has been tentatively selected as its launch vehicle, a source said yesterday. The Ching Tien, formerly known as Yun Feng (雲峰, “Cloud Peak”), is a domestically developed missile with a range of 1,200km to 2,000km being deployed in casemate-type positions as of last month, an official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The hypersonic missile to be derived from the Ching Tien would feature improved range and a mobile launch platform, while the latter would most likely be a 12x12 single chassis
UP AND DOWN: The route would include a 16.4km underground section from Zuoying to Fongshan and a 9.5km elevated part from Fongshan to Pingtung Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday confirmed a project to extend the high-speed rail (HSR) to Pingtung County through Kaohsiung. Cho made the announcement at a ceremony commemorating the completion of a dome at Kaohsiung Main Station. The Ministry of Transportation and Communications approved the HSR expansion in 2019 using a route that branches off a line from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung’s Zuoying District (左營). The project was ultimately delayed due to a lack of support for the route. The Zuoying route would have trains stop at the Zuoying Station and return to a junction before traveling southward to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝).
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday vowed to investigate claims made in a YouTube video about China’s efforts to politically influence young Taiwanese and encourage them to apply for Chinese ID cards. The council’s comments follow Saturday’s release of a video by Taiwanese rapper Chen Po-yuan (陳柏源) and YouTuber “Pa Chiung (八炯)” on China’s “united front” tactics. It is the second video on the subject the pair have released this month. In the video, Chen visits the Taiwan Youth Entrepreneurship Park in Quanzhou in China’s Fujian Province and the Strait Herald news platform in Xiamen, China. The Strait Herald — owned by newspaper
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