China to maintain liquidity

SHANGHAI: China will maintain reasonably ample liquidity in financial markets while better serving needs from the real economy next year, state media quoted a vice governor of the People's Bank of China (PBOC) as saying on Saturday.

Monetary policy in 2023 will ensure sufficient amount of liquidity and the structure will be accurate to aid key sectors, PBOC Deputy Governor Liu Guoqiang said.

"Funding cost will remain reasonably flexible, with little ups and downs," Liu was quoted by state broadcaster CCTV as saying.

At the same forum, Vice Finance Minister Xu Hongcai said China will also implement a proactive fiscal policy next year, setting a reasonable deficit ratio and the size of local government special bonds.

China will "appropriately expand the areas where special government bond funds can be invested and used as capital," CCTV reported Xu as saying.

The remarks by the senior officials came a day after the Central Economic Work Conference, an agenda-setting meeting, where Chinese leaders said they would focus on stabilising the $17-trillion economy in 2023 and step up policy adjustments to ensure targets are hit.