China's Central Bank held a key interest rate on Monday in preparation for a "difficult year," Bloomberg reported. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) left the medium-rate policy unchanged, adding liquidity to meet demands for funding. "In light of the weak data, a cut would probably have undermined the yuan and led to unwanted currency weakness," said regional head of research for Asia Pacific at ING Groep NV, Robert Carnell. "I think the authorities are quite constrained with what they can do — and so I'm neither disappointed or surprised, but I am resigned to this being another difficult year," he added. According to Reuters, this decision by the bank helped inject a net funding of 216 billion yuan into the banking system. It also reported that around 779-billion-yuan worth of MLF loans are set to expire this month. According to Bloomberg, China market its longest deflationary streak since 2009 in December in figures released on Friday. The figures also showed that financing and loan growth did not meet expectations in December, while exports fell in 2023 for the first time since 2016. Bloomberg said that data due on Wednesday will help paint a clear picture regarding the government's efforts to grapple with the weak domestic demand. Reuters reported that so far this year, the yuan has weakened by more than one per cent against the US dollar.
