Greg had remarks from People's Bank of China Deputy Governor Yi Gang earlier: China to maintain growth and work on deleveraging

Also overnight, PBOC Chief Economist Ma Jun reiterated the Bank is to pursue 'more prudent' monetary policy in 2017 compared with 2016

Bolding mine for emphasis ... have no doubt that China is making efforts to tighten up a little more this year; the bounce in the economy has given authorities there a little more room to switch focus more to reform efforts ... which first up will take the form of deleveraging. Also be aware that while there is a lean more toward reform efforts at the expense of let-'er-rip stimulus, authorities will not want the economy to stumble - later this year (autumn in China) is the 19th National Congress, at which 11 seats of the 25-member Politburo will be up for grabs. President Xi Jinping will be looking to consolidate his hold on China and one issue he will not want to be confronting at the time will be a faltering economy. Long story short - Chinese authorities will be tightening up on policy this year but not at the expense of growth.

Anyway, back to Ma Jun's comments (he was speaking at a Bloomberg event in NY):

  • China plans on extending bond trading hours
  • To further open the market

Allowing markets to trade more freely is a laudable goal, but Ma Jun really needs to loosen up during PBOC Karoake Nights too