SHANGHAI: China's benchmark lending rates fell on Wednesday, on expectations that the People's Bank of China would likely conduct a net injection of funds this week.
Dealers said China's central bank had asked commercial banks about demand for 91-day bond repurchase agreements, which suggested that the central bank was likely to skip its regular bill auctions this week.
"Liquidity is still very loose. The market expects a possible net injection this week," said a dealer at a Chinese commercial bank in Shenzhen.
The weighted-average seven-day bond repurchase rate was at 3.0978 percent at midday compared with 3.1403 percent at the close on Tuesday, while the 14-day repo was at 3.6863 percent, down from 3.6932 percent previously.
But dealers said money rates may have less potential to fall further as they were hovering around low levels. They forecast that the one-day rate could return to around 2.7 percent and seven-day repo to around 3.5 percent.
Interest rate swaps (IRS) fell on caution ahead of this Friday's inflation data, which could provide clues on when the government may adjust monetary policy, dealers said.
The benchmark five-year IRS fell 7 bps and the one-year IRS dropped 1.1 bps.
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