BEIJING/HONG KONG: China's central bank vowed to protect consumers exposed to the housing market on Monday and injected more cash into the banking system, the clearest sign yet the authorities could move to contain contagion risks from ailing developer China Evergrande.
Once the epitome of an era of helter-skelter borrowing and building in China, Evergrande has now become the poster child of a crackdown on developers' debts that has left investors large and small sweating on their exposure.
The People's Bank of China (PBOC) made no mention of Evergrande in a statement posted to its website, which contained just a line on housing along with promises to make its monetary policy flexible, targeted and appropriate.
But at a delicate moment for the world's most indebted developer, which missed a bond interest payment last week and has another due this week, its pledge to "safeguard the legitimate rights of housing consumers" hinted at the sort of response markets had begun to hope for.
With liabilities of $305 billion, Evergrande has sparked concerns its problems could spread through China's financial system and reverberate around the world - a worry that has eased as damage has so far been concentrated in the property sector.
The PBOC's broad-ranging statement was issued after the third quarter meeting of its Monetary Policy Committee. Its housing line echoed comments from Evergrande's leadership that point to containment efforts and prioritising small investors in properties ahead of foreign holders of Evergrande debts.
"We expect that any impact to the banking system will be manageable and that the government will instead focus on the social fallout of unfinished housing units," said Sheldon Chan, who manages T. Rowe Price's Asia credit bond strategy.
Suppliers exposed to Evergrande payables and domestic bondholders would also take priority over dollar bond holders, he said. Evergrande dollar bonds have been trading accordingly, and remained on Monday at distressed levels around 30 cents on the dollar.
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