China's central bank injects cash, lowers 14-day reverse repo rate

SHANGHAI (Reuters) -China's central bank supplied 14-day cash to its banking system for the first time in months on Monday and at a lower interest rate, signalling its intent to further ease monetary conditions.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) injected 234.6 billion yuan ($33.29 billion) into the banking system through open market operations, saying it wanted to "keep quarter-end liquidity adequate at a reasonable level in the banking system".

The PBOC added 160.1 billion yuan via 7-day reverse repos at 1.70%, it said in a statement. It also injected 74.5 billion yuan via 14-day reverse repos at 1.85%, compared with 1.95% during the previous injection.

Analysts said the funding operation in itself wasn't a major policy easing. China has typically used 14-day repos to help the banking system tide over long holidays, and the last time it did so was ahead of a spring break in February.

Monday's injection comes ahead of China's National Day holidays starting Oct.1, and the cut in rates aligns the 14-day repo rate with the shorter 7-day repo rate which was cut in July.

"I wouldn’t take this rate cut as a signal that PBOC loosened monetary policy further," said Zhang Zhiwei, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management.

"Nonetheless, I do expect PBOC will cut 7 day repo rate as well as the reserve requirement ratio in the coming months. There is a press conference tomorrow when the financial regulators will shed light on their policy stance."

The world's second largest economy is battling deflationary pressures, and struggling to lift growth despite a series of policy measures aimed at spurring domestic spending. Speculation that it will hasten monetary easing perked up last week, after the U.S. Federal Reserve kicked off its easing cycle with a hefty half percentage point rate cut.

The PBOC last cut its short and long-term benchmark lending rates in July.

Faltering Chinese economic activity has prompted global brokerages to scale back their 2024 China growth forecasts to below the government's official target of about 5%.

President Xi Jinping urged authorities to strive to achieve the country's annual economic and social development goals, state media reported earlier this month.

($1 = 7.0474 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Shanghai newsroom; Editing by Kim Coghill and Shri Navaratnam)