The Monetary Policy Committee of the People's Bank of China (PBOC) announced Monday it reached an agreement at its fourth quarter meeting that the RMB interest and exchange rates should continue to remain basically stable in the near future.
In the first three quarters of this year, China's economy maintained fast growth and economic demand kept expanding, according to the bank. The central bank continued its prudent monetary policy, commercial banks steadily improved their encouraging and restrictive mechanisms on loan management, and credit increase provided better support for economic growth.
At the meeting, it was decided that in the last quarter of this year, close attention should be paid to new changes in both domestic and international economic and financial situations, prudent monetary policy should be continued, and various monetary policy tools should be adopted to appropriately readjust money supply.
Moreover, the bank stressed that efforts should be made to further improve financial services, reinforce credit management, rationalize credit structures, guard against repetitive construction, and pay cautious attention to over-heated credit growth and investment in real estate projects in some regions.
(Xinhua News Agency October 22, 2002)
