China key money rates up on RRR payments; but ample liquidity seen

SHANGHAI: China's main money market rate, the seven-day repo, rose on Monday as banks sought funds to meet payments for bank reserve requirement ratios (RRR), dealers said.

But a steady decline in the overnight and 14-day government bond repurchase rate underlined ample market liquidity and expectations of no further fresh steps to cool the money market as China's economy slows.

"The payment does not have a very big impact on market liquidity," said a dealer at a Chinese commercial bank in Shenzhen. "After that, the money rate still has potential to fall in the coming days."

Dealers said the market was watching whether the central bank would continue to inject funds into the market via its open market operations. It has conducted a net injection of funds for 12 straight weeks up to last week.

The key benchmark seven-day government bond repurchase rate rose 20.42 basis points to 3.3483 percent compared with Friday's 3.1441 percent.

Copyright Reuters, 2011