RIYADH: China’s central bank continued injecting liquidity in small doses into the banking system in the run-up to the month-end.
The People’s Bank of China ploughed 2 billion yuan ($295.76 million) through seven-day reverse repos on Wednesday, the tiniest daily cash injection since January 2021.
With 3 billion yuan worth of such a liquidity tool maturing on Wednesday, the PBOC drained 1 billion yuan on a net basis on the day.
China’s industrial profits rebound in June
China’s industrial profits in June grew 0.8 percent from a year earlier, rebounding from a 6.5 percent decline in May, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday.
Buoyed by easing pandemic curbs and government stimulus, June’s data shows industrial firms are gradually coming back from painful supply chain disruptions in the second quarter.
As the pandemic was effectively controlled and the industrial chain further recovered, industrial firms’ efficiency improved markedly, NBS Senior Statistician Zhu Hong said in a statement.
China’s economy braked sharply in the April-June quarter, highlighting the colossal toll on activity from widespread lockdowns that hit domestic consumption and business confidence.
Industrial firms saw their combined profits rise 1 percent to 4.27 trillion yuan from January to June from the same period a year earlier. That matched the 1.0 percent growth pace in the first five months, the data showed.
Liabilities at industrial firms jumped 10.5 percent at the end-June, also remaining the same as the 10.5 percent growth as of end-May.
In June, China’s industrial output grew 3.9 percent from a year earlier, while factory-gate inflation hit a 15-month low as the country continues to buck the global trend of accelerating prices.
China Q2 smartphone sales fall
Chinese smartphone sales in April-June fell 14.2 percent on year and volumes hit a decade low, Counterpoint Research said on Wednesday, as China struggles to recover from the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns and the industry braces for more uncertainty.
Quarterly sales volumes were 12.6 percent lower than those seen in the first quarter of 2020, when the pandemic hit China and sales were the worst since the fourth quarter of 2012, when the iPhone 5 was introduced, according to Counterpoint.
The research firm does not give unit sales estimates.
(With input from Reuters)
