Central bank holds fire on rates

THE central bank left borrowing costs for interbank loans unchanged Thursday, a decision that shrugged off the U.S. Federal Reserve’s policy rate increase and came as data showed the world’s second-biggest economy lost more steam than expected.

The People’s Bank of China’s on-hold stance highlighted uncertainty about the economic outlook as policymakers try to steer through the challenge of a trade spat with the United States and a government-led clampdown on debt. The rate for seven-day reverse repurchase agreements remained at 2.55 percent, the 14-day tenor at 2.70 percent and the 28-day tenor at 2.85 percent, the central bank said.

Outstanding local government debt edges up

CHINA’S outstanding local government debt was 16.63 trillion yuan (US$2.60 trillion) at the end of May, the Ministry of Finance said Wednesday, up from 16.61 trillion yuan a month earlier.

In May, local governments issued a total of 355.3 billion yuan worth of bonds, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement. A majority of the bonds were bond swaps from higher-cost, maturing debt into lower-cost, longer-term bonds. Local governments also for the first time this year issued new bonds worth 17.1 billion yuan in May.

May coal output hits highest since December

COAL output in China hit its highest level since December in May, as miners quickened production to meet rising demand ahead of summer, government data showed Thursday.

China produced 296.99 million tons of coal in May, up 3.5 percent from the same month last year, according to the data from the National Bureau of Statistics. In the first five months of 2018, coal output reached 1.4 billion tons, up 4 percent from the same period the year before.

Foreign direct investment up 11.7%

CHINA attracted US$9.06 billion in foreign direct investment in May, up 11.7 percent from a year earlier, the Ministry of Commerce said Thursday.

Over the first five months of the year, China’s foreign direct investment rose 3.6 percent from a year ago to US$52.26 billion, the ministry said. In the January-May period, China recorded US$47.89 billion in non-financial outbound direct investment, up 38.5 percent from a year ago, said the ministry.