China's new stimulus to have positive effects, experts say

China's recent package of stimulus policies is expected to boost consumption, and save money for millions of families, according to experts speaking to China Media Group (CMG).

China's central bank implemented its decision on Friday to reduce the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) for financial institutions by 0.5 percentage points. After this cut, the weighted average RRR for financial institutions is about 6.6 percent.

Thursday's meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee made further arrangements for economic work, including the increase of counter-cyclical adjustments of fiscal and monetary policies, responses to people's concerns about the property market, methods to boost the capital market, and efforts to roll out a private economy promotion law.

The government is adding more content to the stimulus package. The State Council Information Office held a routine policy briefing on Friday to introduce guidelines concerning the insurance sector. The guidelines outline the objectives for the insurance industry for 2029 and 2035, with a focus on robust regulatory measures, risk management and fostering the industry's high-quality growth.

"We are focused on increasing investment in strategic emerging industries and advanced manufacturing sectors to better support the growth of high-quality new productive forces," said Luo Yanjun, director of the Life Insurance Department of the National Financial Regulatory Administration.

"[The cut of the RRR] is equivalent to releasing about 1 trillion yuan ($142.6 billion) of long-term funds to the market, greatly increasing market liquidity before the national holiday," said Qu Yiping at Eastmoney Securities.

Qu also highlighted the potential of Tuesday's announcement on reducing the interest rates of existing mortgages and unifying the minimum down payment ratio for mortgages. "[The reduction] is anticipated to cut the average annual interest expenses for households by roughly 150 billion yuan ($21.4 billion), which is a substantial boost to the revival of consumer spending among residents," he added.

Wang Qing, chief macro analyst at Dongfang Jincheng, said that the purpose of the recent series of policies is to stabilize the real estate market, effectively boost domestic demand, guide the moderate rise of price levels and improve the momentum of economic growth.

"I would bet that the forcefulness of all these policies in combination would definitely take an effect at least for the rest of the year," said John Gong, professor at University of International Business and Economics. "It is already being reflected in the equity market for the last few days."

The prices of Chinese assets have surged this week. A-shares traded a total of 1.46 trillion yuan ($208 billion) throughout Friday, setting a three-year high. This week, the Shanghai Composite Index rose by 12.81 percent, the best single-week performance since November 2008; the Shenzhen Component Index rose by 17.83 percent; the ChiNext Index rose by 22.71 percent, setting a new high for weekly gains.