MNI China Daily Summary: Thursday, March 19

EXCLUSIVE: China’s Loan Prime Rate (LPR) is expected to remain unchanged in March as the central bank holds its key 7-day reverse repo rate steady amid rising inflation from surging oil prices and stronger-than-expected economic performance in the first two months of 2026.

POLICY: Chinese authorities have asked pig farming enterprises to prepare to scale back production targets, the Financial Associated Press reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.

POLICY: China’s fourth-largest provincial economy, Zhejiang, saw value added of industrial enterprises above designated size rise 9.8% year on year in January-February, accelerating 2.9 percentage points from last year’s full-year pace, the provincial statistics bureau said.

LIQUIDITY: The People's Bank of China (PBOC) conducted CNY13 billion via 7-day reverse repos, with the rate unchanged at 1.40%. The operation led to a net drain of CNY11.5 billion after offsetting the maturity of CNY24.5 today, according to Wind Information.

RATES: The seven-day weighted average interbank repo rate for depository institutions (DR007) decreased to 1.4271% from 1.4332%, Wind Information showed. The overnight repo average increased to 1.3204% from 1.3201%.

YUAN: The currency weakened to 6.9013 against the dollar from 6.8909 on Wednesday. The PBOC set the dollar-yuan central parity rate higher at 6.8975, compared with 6.8909 set on Wednesday. The fixing was estimated at 6.8975 by Bloomberg survey today.

BONDS: The yield on 10-year China Government Bonds was last at 1.8225%, up from Wednesday's close of 1.8140%, according to Wind Information.

STOCKS: The Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.39% to 4,006.55 while the CSI300 index decreased 1.61% to 4,583.25. The Hang Seng Index was down 2.02% to 25,500.58.

FROM THE PRESS: The National Development and Reform Commission has launched a new batch of 13 landmark foreign investment projects totalling USD13.4 billion, Securities Daily reported. The manufacturing projects focus on electronics and automobiles, while projects in the service sector have included logistics for the first time and doubled down on biomedical. This signifies that the country’s utilisation of foreign investment has shifted from simply pursuing scale expansion to upgrading its industrial chain, the newspaper said, citing analysts.

Authorities could establish a dynamic-adjustment mechanism for the collection ratio of state-owned capital gains, in line with reform requirements to “reasonably increase the proportion of state-owned capital gains handover” outlined in the 15th Five-Year Plan, Yicai.com reported, citing Deng Shulian, professor at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. Such a mechanism should take into account industry conditions, corporate profitability and fiscal needs, Deng said. Under the proposal, the proportion could be raised to above 30% for highly profitable monopolistic enterprises such as tobacco companies, while remaining at 20–25% for resource-based firms including oil and electricity producers. A lower range of 5-10% could apply to companies engaged in R&D-intensive and strategic emerging industries, she added.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission said it will further deepen its special campaign against corruption to remove obstacles that hinder the reform and development of the capital market, Shanghai Securities News reported. The CSRC will boost efforts in investigating and prosecuting cases, especially by severely punishing those who disrupt the order of the capital market and infringe upon the interests of small and medium-sized investors.