THE central bank is seeking a police investigation into the circulation last week on social media of what it called false information saying it had announced a cut in a key bank reserve ratio.

On Friday, private chat groups on China’s popular social media platform WeChat shared what appeared to be a paragraph pasted from a story by Xinhua saying that the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) had announced a cut in the reserve requirement ratio (RRR), to take effect April 1.

No such move had been announced.

“The central bank has officially sent a letter to the police for investigating the case and punishing those who have published false information,” the Finance News, a central bank publication, said in a commentary yesterday that was reposted on the central bank’s official Weibo account.

The commentary said monetary policy moves are “by no means a trivial matter,” stressing even if the false information was intended as an April Fool’s joke, those who started it would face legal consequences.

“Although the rumors of an RRR cut have lost traction, we believe this does not mean that the relevant rumor-mongers can go unpunished,” it said.

The central bank publication cited criminal laws that could see punishment of up to five years in jail for those who caused “serious consequences” by fabricating and disseminating false information affecting securities and futures trading.

“This kind of irresponsible behavior should not be tolerated, otherwise the rumors will continue to make waves in the market or become more daring,” it added.

The central bank has cut banks’ RRRs five times over the past year, with a two-stage RRR cut in January releasing a total of 1.5 trillion yuan (US$223.23 billion) into the financial system.

Further cuts in RRR had been expected this year, after data pointed to persistently soft demand in the country.

Premier Li Keqiang said last month that the government has additional monetary policy measures that it can take to support economic growth this year.

Sources said in February that the central bank is not yet ready to cut benchmark interest rates to spur the slowing economy, but is likely to cut market-based rates.

The premier said the government would take multiple measures to lower funding costs for small and micro firms by 1 percentage point this year.

(SD-Agencies)