OREANDA-NEWS. October 21, 2011. On April 6, the PBC decided to raise the RMB benchmark deposit and loan interest rates of financial institutions. The one-year benchmark deposit rate was raised by 0.25 percentage points from 3 percent to 3.25 percent, and the one-year benchmark loan rate was raised by 0.25 percentage points from 6.06 percent to 6.31 percent. The benchmark rates on deposits and loans of other maturities and personal provident housing funds were adjusted accordingly.

On April 9, the PBC issued PBC Decree [2011] No.3, establishing specific rules for management of trading in the interbank bond market by introducing rules on disclosure of significant abnormal trading and on ex-ante reporting of abnormal trading, and so forth, for the purpose of further standardizing trading behavior on the interbank bond market.

On April 14, the PBC reported to the Finance and Economy Committee of the National People’s Congress on implementation of monetary policy in the first quarter of 2011.

On April 15, the PBC and the MOF jointly issued PBC and MOF Decree [2011] No. 6, establishing specific requirements for market-making in newly issued treasury bonds of key maturities, so as to further improve the market price discovery mechanism as well as the treasury bond yield curve.

On April 17, the PBC announced it would raise the RMB reserve requirement ratio for deposit-taking financial institutions by 0.5 percentage points, effective from April 21, 2011.

On April 18, the PBC and the New Zealand Reserve Bank signed in Beijing a bilateral local currency swap agreement in the amount of 25 billion yuan for the purpose of strengthening financial cooperation and promoting bilateral trade and investment.

On April 19, the PBC and the Central Bank of the Republic of Uzbekistan signed in Beijing a bilateral local currency swap agreement in the amount of 700 million yuan for the purpose of strengthening financial cooperation and promoting bilateral trade and investment.

On May 3, the China Monetary Policy Report for Q1 2011 was released.

On May 6, the PBC and the Central Bank of Mongolia signed in Ulan Bator a bilateral local currency swap agreement in the amount of 5 billion yuan for the purpose of promoting bilateral trade and providing short-term liquidity in the financial system.

On May 12, the PBC announced it would raise the RMB reserve requirement ratio for deposit-taking financial institutions by 0.5 percentage points, effective from May 18, 2011.

On June 1, the Regional Financial Sector Performance Report for 2010 was released.

On June 13, the PBC and the National Bank of Kazakhstan signed in Astana a bilateral local currency swap agreement in the amount of 7 billion yuan for the purpose of strengthening financial cooperation and promoting bilateral trade and investment.

On June 14, the PBC announced it would raise the RMB reserve requirement ratio for deposit-taking financial institutions by 0.5 percentage points, effective from June 20, 2011.

On June 23, the People’s Bank of China signed a new bilateral local currency settlement agreement in Russia with the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. With the signing of the agreement, bilateral local currency settlement will cover not only border trade but also general trade and it will have an expanded geographic coverage. According to the agreement, economic entities in the two countries will be able to conduct settlements and payments for trade in goods and services with the currency of their choice, i.e. either a freely convertible currency, the RMB, or the ruble. The agreement is expected to deepen financial cooperation and promote bilateral trade and investment between China and Russia.