股市暴跌後 中國再次降息降準

HONG KONG — Acting a day after the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets plunged more than 7 percent, China’s central bank cut interest rates on Saturday and reduced the reserves that certain banks must hold.

香港——在中國滬深股市週五暴跌7%之後的第二天，中國央行週六宣佈將分別降低利率和存款準備金率。

The two measures send a signal that the government may not be eager to see an abrupt end to a stock market rally that has seen prices more than double in the last 12 months. The rally has been underpinned by speculative trading heavily financed with borrowed money. Young, often poorly educated investors have been betting on further appreciation even as business managers, with more information on the true health of their companies, have reportedly been selling heavily.

此舉傳遞了一種信號，政府可能不願意看到股市的上升趨勢戛然而止，在過去的12個月，中國股市已經上漲一倍有餘。年輕且通常缺乏股市知識的投資者一直在押注股票繼續升值，儘管有報道說，那些對自己企業的實際經營狀況有着更多瞭解的企業高管們已經在大筆拋售股票。

“We think today’s move is mainly driven by the government desire to support a bull market,” Lan Shen and Shuang Ding, two economists at Standard Chartered, said in a statement on Saturday evening.

週六晚間，渣打銀行(Standard Chartered)的兩位經濟學家沈蘭和丁爽在一份報告中寫道，“我們認爲（央行）今天的舉動主要是由政府支撐牛市的願望所驅動。”

Keeping the stock market buoyant, through measures like the interest rate cut, could help the Chinese government sell part of its stakes in government-owned enterprises that have incurred huge debts.

通過降息等措施保持股市上漲，可能幫助持有國有企業股份的中國政府賣掉在那些揹負鉅額債務的企業中的部分持股。

Previous sharp drops in the stock markets this year have been quickly countered by optimistic statements in state-controlled media. But Saturday’s moves, which included the fourth reduction in interest rates since last November, were unusual in so closely following a stock market nose-dive.

今年以來的數次股市下跌之後國有媒體都很快發佈樂觀積極的言論作爲迴應，但是週六的降息行動卻因爲隨着股市跳水接踵而來而顯得不同尋常。這次降息也是自去年11月以來的第四次降息。

Yet both monetary policy moves on Saturday were carefully calibrated to limit their effect. China’s economy has already begun to stabilize in recent weeks, and the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, has been concerned that it not feed another round of speculative lending and borrowing.

週六的貨幣政策調整是精心考慮後做出的，以限制它們可能產生的效果。在最近數週，中國經濟已經開始企穩，而作爲央行的中國人民銀行一直在擔心這樣做會造成新一輪的投機性放款和借貸。

The People’s Bank cut interest rates by only a quarter of a percent, to 4.85 percent for one-year bank loans, and to 2 percent for one-year bank deposits. The central bank also told banks that specialize in agricultural loans and loans to smaller businesses that they could hold slightly smaller reserves against their deposits, freeing them to lend more.

央行將金融機構一年期貸款基準利率僅下調0.25個百分點至4.85%，一年期銀行存款利率降至2%。央行還告知專營農業貸款和中小企業貸款的銀行，他們可以略微縮小存款準備金規模，以釋放出更多的資金供這些銀行進行借貸。

But the central bank pointedly did not reduce the reserve requirement ratio for large banks, which represent more than half of the country’s financial system.

但是，央行明顯沒有縮減大型銀行的存款準備金率，這些銀行佔據中國金融系統規模的一半以上。

The lower ratio and the reduced interest rates were to take effect on Sunday.

降準和降息從週日開始生效。

Economic measures like monthly surveys of corporate purchasing managers show that the Chinese economy remains fairly weak but is no longer deteriorating. A slide in housing prices that began in the spring of last year appears to have leveled off and even reversed in some cities.

作爲宏觀經濟衡量指標的每週企業採購經理人指數顯示，中國經濟還相對疲弱，但已經不再惡化。去年春季開始的房價下跌已經持穩，某些城市還出現了上漲。

“The recent data that we had was definitely not good,” Louis Kuijs, the chief economist for greater China at the Royal Bank of Scotland, said in a recent interview. “But it wasn’t a disaster.”

蘇格蘭皇家銀行大中華區的首席經濟學家高路易(Louis Kuijs)在最近的一次採訪中說，“我們近期的數據顯示經濟絕對不好，但並非災難性的。”