市场专家对财联社记者表示，这体现了央行下调政策利率（公开市场7天期逆回购操作利率）对市场化利率的引导作用。MLF利率下降有助于节约银行资金成本，通过银行内部定价传导，预计LPR和存款利率等也会随之下行，这将持续提振市场信心，支持经济稳定增长。①Conducting a 300 billion yuan MLF operation, with a bid rate of 2.00%, down by 0.3 percentage points from the previous month, marking the first downward market-oriented interest rate since yesterday's press conference by the State Council Information Office; ②After announcing the reserve requirement cut, the necessity for the central bank to continue the same amount of MLF operations has decreased. Industry insiders expect that LPR and deposit rates will also follow suit by decreasing.
On September 25th, Caixin learned (Reporter Cao Yunyi) that today, in order to maintain a reasonably ample liquidity in the banking system, the People's Bank of China conducted a 300 billion yuan Medium-term Lending Facility (MLF) operation, with a term of 1 year, a maximum bidding rate of 2.30%, a minimum bidding rate of 1.90%, and a bid rate of 2.00%. After the operation, the balance of MLF was 6,878 billion yuan.
The MLF rate has gone down as scheduled, with the incremental financial support policy showing results. Just now, the central bank's official website announced in the 'Medium-term Lending Facility' section that a one-year MLF operation of 300 billion yuan was conducted that day, with a bid rate of 2.0%, down by 0.3 percentage points from the previous month. This is the first downward market-oriented interest rate after Governor Pan Gongsheng of the central bank announced the upcoming reserve requirement cut and interest rate reduction arrangements at yesterday's press conference.
Market experts told Caixin reporters that this reflects the central bank's guidance role of lowering policy interest rates (open market 7-day reverse repo operation rates) on market-oriented interest rates. The decline in MLF rates helps save bank funding costs, and through internal bank pricing transmission, LPR and deposit rates are also expected to decrease accordingly, which will continue to boost market confidence and support stable economic growth.
In addition, this round of MLF reduction and continued operations, in conjunction with the reserve requirement cut, is aimed at maintaining reasonably ample liquidity. The amount of MLF operations in September was 291 billion yuan less than the amount maturing, mainly due to yesterday's announcement by the central bank of a forthcoming 0.5 percentage point reserve cut and the release of 1 trillion yuan of long-term funds, significantly narrowing the long-term liquidity gap in the banking system, reducing the necessity for the central bank to continue the same amount of MLF operations.
It is worth noting that the central bank has publicly disclosed the bidding rates for MLF for the first time, further enhancing operational transparency. Reporters noticed that since July, the central bank has clearly stated in its announcements that a fixed quantity and rate tender method will be used for MLF operations, and the bid rate will be flexibly determined based on institutional bids. This month, the central bank first disclosed the situation of MLF bid rates, with institutional bid rates ranging from a high of 2.3% to a low of 1.9%, reflecting the differences in the medium to long-term funding needs of different institutions. This is also in line with Governor Pan Gongsheng's speech on '6.19 Shanghai Lujiazui,' emphasizing the enhanced transparency of monetary policy.
MLF and open market operations are separately announced, clarifying the positioning differences of future tools. Market participants state that in the past, MLF operation results were combined with the same-day open market reverse repo operations for publication, but this time the MLF operations started fresh, being released early in the re-lending - Medium-term Lending Facility section, further reflecting the differentiation of MLF as a tool for medium to long-term liquidity supply in comparison to the 7-day reverse repo operation rate as the policy rate.
