China's central bank says opens up $70.6b in liquidity to boost market

BEIJING — China's central bank on Thursday launched a "swap facility" offering firms access to 500 billion yuan ($70.6 billion) in liquidity, as Beijing seeks to boost the country's flagging economy.

The programme would allow "qualified... companies to exchange bonds, stock ETFs, CSI 300 constituent stocks and other assets with the People's Bank of China for high-grade liquid assets such as treasury bonds and central bank bills", the bank said.

"The scale of the first phase of the operation is 500 billion yuan and can be further expanded depending on the situation," it added.

"Starting today, applications from qualified securities, funds and insurance companies will be accepted.".

Announcing the plans last month, central bank chief Pan Gongsheng said the move would "significantly enhance" firms' ability to access funds to buy stocks.

The news comes after traders on the mainland and in Hong Kong were left disappointed by a news conference Tuesday in which officials failed to unveil any new stimulus and provided scant detail on its plans for implementing the raft measures already announced.

The world's second-largest economy has struggled to regain its footing since the lifting of pandemic measures at the end of 2022.

Economists say more direct state support is needed to boost consumption and achieve the government's official national growth target of about five per cent for this year.