Last week we documented several instances of China’s most recent monetary easing, from the expanded usage of the Medium-Term Lending Facility to purchase China’s equivalent ot junk bonds, to the barely noticed 103bps cut in China’s 3-Month Treasury rate, even as the PBOC had cut the RRR three times already, most recently at the end of June.
However, judging by the ongoing slide in the Chinese stock market, it was not enough; meanwhile in a curious development, last week we also reported that in a very rare public “war of words” between the PBOC and the Ministry of Finance, the PBOC accused the MOF of not doing enough to stimulate the country and that the country’s fiscal policy wasn’t “proactive.” That, as we said at the time, was a clear signal that fiscal policy easing may be imminent.
And, as we learned overnight, it was because on Monday the State Council held a meeting in which it discussed economic policies, and decided to make the fiscal policy more “proactive” (a word we had heard just a few days earlier), and to keep liquidity conditions “reasonably adequate”. To temper expectations, the government also reiterated that they intend to avoid aggressive loosening like the “4 trillion” stimulus China rolled out in 2008/09.
Commenting on the announcement, Deutsche Bank writes that “the statement is a confirmation of policy stance changing from tightening toward loosening.”
Indeed, as noted here over the past month, the change of monetary stance has already happened in Q2 with the RRR cut and injection of liquidity through MLF. The new message from the meeting today is that fiscal policy will become incrementally more expansionary.
Specifically the government will:
- allow all firms to deduct 75% of their R&D expenses from tax, which they estimate can save firms RMB 65bn for the full year;
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