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China on Friday cut the amount banks must hold in reserve, a bid to boost its flagging economy by releasing an estimated $142.6 billion in liquidity into the financial market.
The move, unveiled in a statement from China’s central bank, comes a day after top officials including President Xi Jinping met and admitted to “new problems” in the world’s second-largest economy.
Beijing has this week unveiled a raft of measures to boost its ailing economy, which it has targeted to grow five percent this year — an objective analysts say is optimistic given the many headwinds it faces.
On Thursday, the ruling Communist Party convened a meeting of its top body, the Politburo, to “analyse and study the current economic situation”.
Beijing on Friday also cut the seven-day reverse repo rate, the short-term interest paid by the central bank on loans from commercial lenders.
The central bank announced it cut the key rate from 1.7 percent to 1.5 percent.
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