South China Morning Post:
Regarding the RRR cut, with the U.S. Federal Reserve has hinted a signal of policy tightening, is the central bank worried about the risks brought about by the differentiation of China's and the US' monetary policies, including RMB depreciation or capital outflow? What measures will be taken to handle these risks? Thank you.
Sun Guofeng:
Since 2020, China has always adhered to and implemented a prudent monetary policy, which not only strongly supports the real economy but also refrains from resorting to a deluge of strong stimulus policies. At the same time, in the light of the domestic epidemic prevention and control and the economic and financial situation, we have appropriately adjusted the intensity and pace of the policies. From February to April last year, due to the severe impact of the epidemic on the domestic economy, the monetary policy response was relatively large. Since May last year, the intensity of monetary policy has gradually stabilized. In the first half of this year, it has basically returned to the normal state before the epidemic, maintaining a leading position in global macro policies.
In the context of global economic integration, the economy and finance of various economies have mutual effects on one another. However, due to differences caused by their various states of epidemic prevention and control and economic recoveries, it is normal that the U.S. and China have different operations of their monetary policy. Currently, China's economy is stable and improving, and the stance of prudent monetary policy has not changed. The RRR cut is mainly in place to optimize the capital structure of financial institutions, improve financial service capabilities, and better support the real economy.
In the next stage, the monetary policy will focus on the domestic situations and prioritize stability. We will stick to a normal monetary policy, and maintain monetary policy independence. We will adjust the intensity and pace of our policies in the light of the domestic economic situation and price trends, take into account internal and external balances, and strongly support the real economy. At the same time, we will also pay close attention to the changes in the international economic and financial situations, taking ourselves as the mainstay and carry out international macro policy coordination to jointly foster a positive environment in order to promote the stable recovery of the global economy. Thank you.
