Will China refrain from reserve ratio cuts
A Bloomberg survey suggests China’s central bank will keep reserve requirement ratios for banks the same this year.
Shares in the major Chinese stock benchmarks are lower this morning (November 20th) as economists consider whether China will refrain from cutting lenders' reserve requirements for the remainder of 2012.
This is due to the fact the economic slowdown in the world's second-largest power has declined and the central bank upped its use of a separate facility to adjust funds in the financial system, Bloomberg reports.
A median estimate of economists by the news organisation revealed many expect the People's Bank of China will have to keep the reserve-requirement ratio for large lenders at 20 per cent.
This is compared with the half-point cut anticipated last month and reflects a second month of improvements in industrial production and retail sales and Beijing's apparent reluctance to increase stimulus as new leader Xi Jinping settles into the top job.
At 09:30 GMT, the Hong Kong Hang Seng was lower by 0.1 per cent to an index value of 21228.2 points and the Shanghai SSE Composite retreated by 0.4 per cent to 2008.9 points.
Find out about the Chinese stock exchange and CFD trading at City Index.
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