China cut its banks' reserve requirement ratios for the fourth time this year, and some argued it meant whether an easing cycle or an interest rate cut is on the road.
Li Wei, the Senior Economist of Standard Chartered Bank's China division, expects no interest rate cut in China and considers deleveraging as the key policy priority.
Li explained that the interest rate cut in China would exert downward pressures on the asset market, stock market as well as currency. Meanwhile, as other major central banks around the world are turning into the hiking cycle, "we don't want our policy to diverge too much from them," Li added.
CGTN Photo
Chinese currency Renminbi (RMB) weakened to 6.9 against the US dollar last week, and there is no agreement on whether it will slow down before approaching seven, or whether it will weaken further.
From his perspective, a weaker RMB should not be the biggest concern. "We want the currency to reflect economic status. When the growth is slowing, a weaker currency supposedly could be good for growth. And of course, you don't want a rapid depreciation of RMB, because that could lead to market panic, de-stabilized financial market," the economist said.
Meanwhile, he is positive on RMB's resilience. "You have to look at RMB from a basket perspective. So against not only the US dollar but also euro and Japanese yen, RMB has been remaining quite resilient," Li told CGTN.
"The market sentiment is still quite OK, not very strong but not panicking," Li added, but stressing, "I think the first priority for Chinese government is to stabilize growth and to revitalize the investors' sentiments."
After the stability measures, he said, "we can expect the currency to become more stable and more flexible. And it will be good for China's economy because it's the nature for the market economy."
(Bai Xuxu also contributed to the story.)