The People's Bank of China held its 2026 work conference and set out its policy and reform priorities for the year, alongside a review of 2025 work and planning linked to the central bank’s "15th Five-Year Plan". The agenda centres on continuing a moderately loose monetary policy, improving financial support for the real economy through targeted tools, advancing financial reform and opening up, and strengthening mechanisms to prevent and resolve risks. For monetary policy, the plan emphasises flexible use of tools including reserve requirement ratio and interest rate cuts, open market operations and tighter implementation and supervision of interest rate policies to keep liquidity sufficient and reduce overall financing costs, while maintaining the renminbi exchange rate basically stable at a reasonable and balanced level and preventing overshooting. Support measures for the real economy include further developing the policy framework, statistics and assessment system for the "five major articles" of finance, refining structural monetary policy tools, building out the bond market "science and technology board", and using relending including for service consumption and pensions, alongside enhanced supervision of key supply chain financing information service platforms. On risk, priorities include continued resolution of financing platform debt risks and an orderly withdrawal of financing platforms, stronger identification and early correction for small and medium-sized financial institutions, exploration of macroprudential management for the financial market, and institutional arrangements to provide liquidity to non-bank institutions under specific scenarios, combined with intensified financial market supervision and enforcement. Reform and opening-up measures cover tighter oversight of interbank and foreign exchange markets and related derivatives, optimisation of "Bond Connect" and "Swap Connect", expanded cross-border renminbi infrastructure and panda bond issuance, and broader fast payment system and QR code interconnection. The work programme also references legislative revision projects including the People’s Bank of China Law, the Financial Stability Law and the Commercial Banking Law, plus continued work on virtual currency transaction supervision, development of the digital yuan, anti-money laundering rules including beneficial owner information filing, and implementation of a one-time personal credit repair policy.
Central Bank of the Republic of China 2026-01-06
People's Bank of China sets 2026 priorities with moderately loose monetary policy, expanded relending support and stronger risk controls
The People's Bank of China outlined its 2026 policy priorities, focusing on a moderately loose monetary policy, financial reform, and risk prevention. Key measures include flexible monetary tools, support for the real economy, risk resolution for financial institutions, and reforms in interbank and foreign exchange markets, alongside legislative revisions and digital currency development.