China to make monetary policy more targeted, effective: senior official

File photo shows a worker counting Chinese currency RMB banknotes at a bank in Linyi, east China's Shandong Province. 

Photo by Zhang Chunlei, Xinhua

China will make its prudent monetary policy more targeted and effective in order to facilitate the overall recovery and improvement of its economy, a senior official said.

In an interview with Xinhua, Guo Shuqing, chairman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, highlighted expanding effective demand and deepening supply-side reform as focuses of the country's monetary policy in 2023.

"Converting the current total income into consumption and investment to the maximum extent possible is the key to faster economic recovery and high-quality growth, and financial services have a lot to offer in the process," Guo said.

Guo specified the aims and tasks of China's financial policy this year, saying that the commission will work to increase the incomes of low- and middle-income groups -- and of those most affected by the epidemic -- through multiple channels, encourage spending on big-ticket items such as housing and automobiles, and bolster support for service consumption.

China will also continue to ensure investment in and financing of infrastructure projects, and improve financial services for the foreign trade sector, especially when it comes to trade with emerging economies and developing countries, according to Guo.

Guo pledged to tilt monetary policy toward private enterprises, with measures to maintain the effective growth of total credit and lower overall financing costs for them.

Concerning internet platform enterprises, Guo said supervision will be carried out on a regular basis and support will be given to help them play a bigger role in job creation and global competition.

The chairman also stressed the need to promote healthy circulation between the real estate and financial sectors.

China will make efforts to ensure the delivery of pre-sold housing, focus on improving the balance sheets of leading real estate developers, and seek to promote the property industry's transition to new development models, he noted.

In terms of the renminbi exchange rate, Guo expects that it will maintain two-way fluctuations, with overall strengthening momentum in the medium and long-term.

Noting that China's financial opening-up had entered a new phase in recent years, Guo pledged that the country will not stop its opening-up endeavors. China will further simplify the procedures for foreign investors to enter the Chinese market and steadily expand institutional opening-up, Guo said.