China Cuts And The Swiss Ramble

 | Oct 26, 2015 01:42AM ET

China Cuts:

Welcome back to Monday Asia in what looks an action packed week.

Friday saw the People’s Bank of China cut their benchmark rate by another 0.25% to 4.35%. This is the 6th cut of official interest rates in the last 12 months! Interestingly enough, the control that the PBOC has, allows it to cut rates for ‘businesses and commercial purposes’ but not for mortgages. This is intended to guard against the formation of a housing bubble. Wouldn’t the RBA and RBNZ love that!

Alongside the rate cut was a cut in the Reserve Requirement Ratio by 0.5% to 17.5%. The RRR is the level of capital that banks must hold on their books and the cut has the effect of flooding the economy with an increase of liquidity intended to spur spending and economic growth.

China has continued on the path of financial system reform and a move towards the liberalisation of their market. In a major change, Chinese banks no longer have to be completely in line with the PBOC when it comes to setting their own deposit rates. The PBOC has said that it will remove this deposit ceiling, further inching the economy towards the open market.

In theory.

AUD/USD 5 Minute: