1. By injecting the most cash in three years in open-market operations, China is using various tools to ensure ample liquidity without cutting banks' reserve requirement ratios (RRR), according to a UBS economist. The People's Bank of China (PBOC), the country's central bank, plans to use a variety of facilities rather than RRR cuts to ensure liquidity and stable short-term rates in the near term, UBS economist Wang Tao said in a research note. Liquidity conditions often tighten ahead of the week-long Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, which falls on Feb. 8, and the central bank usually injects large amounts of cash into the money market to keep interest rates steady.
2. Chinese brokerage firms posted big profits in 2015 boosted by easing measures from policymakers, according to the Securities Association of China (SAC). Combined net profits of 125 brokerage firms totaled 244.76 billion yuan (36.97 billion U.S. dollars) in 2015, said the SAC. In 2014, the combined net profits of 120 brokerage firms stood at 96.55 billion yuan, SAC data showed. The aggregate revenues of 125 brokerages hit 575.16 billion yuan in 2015, compared with 260.28 billion yuan posted by 120 brokerages in 2014. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gained 9.4 percent in 2015 despite wild fluctuations in the summer.
3. Chinese banks' loans to small businesses increased last year as government policy continued to support such firms to generate jobs and growth, the central bank said on Friday. Outstanding loans extended to small businesses in China rose by 13.9 percent year on year to 17.39 trillion yuan (2.6 trillion U.S. dollars), according to the People's Bank of China (PBOC). The pace was 2.7 and 5.3 percentage points higher than the growth rate of loans received last year by large- and mid-sized businesses. The loans to small businesses accounted for 31.2 percent of China's total loans to enterprises in 2015, up 0.8 percentage points from 2014, the PBOC said.
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