OREANDA-NEWS. On April 1, the Monetary Policy Committee of the PBC convened its first regular quarterly meeting in 2013.

On April 9, with the authorization of the PBC, the China Foreign Exchange Trade System (CFETS) announced to improve the trading mode between the RMB and the Australian dollar (\\$A) and launched direct trading between the two currencies on the inter-bank foreign exchange market.

On April 15, the PBC reported to the Finance and Economy Committee of the National People’s Congress on monetary policy implementation in the first quarter of 2013.

On April 25, the PBC issued the Notices on Issues Concerning the Pilot Securities Investment by RMB Qualified Financial Institutional Investors on the Domestic Market (PBC Document [2013] No. 105).

On May 5, to support compliant enterprises to carry out normal business activities and prevent BOP risks, the SAFE issued the Notice of the Foreign Administration of Foreign Exchange on Strengthening the Administration of Foreign Capital Inflows (SAFE Document [2013] No.20), in order to strengthen the administration of banking institutions’ comprehensive position resulting from purchase and surrender of foreign exchange, category management of foreign exchange receipts and payments of import and export firms, and foreign exchange inspection.

On May 9, the China Monetary Policy Report for Q1 2013 was released.

On June 14, the Regional Financial Sector Performance Report for 2012 was released.

On June 21, the Monetary Policy Committee of the PBC convened its second regular quarterly meeting in 2013.

On June 22, the PBC signed a bilateral local currency swap agreement with the Bank of England. The size of the swap facility was 200 billion yuan or 20 billion pound. The agreement will be effective for three years, and can be extended by mutual consent.

On June 22, in order to implement the arrangement of the State Council on strengthening financial support to economic structure adjustment, transformation, and upgrading, and guide credit flow to step up support to the real economy, the PBC decided to increase the quota of central bank discount by 12 billion yuan, to supply liquidity to those financial institutions which comply with the requirement of the macro-prudential regulation, and to support financial institutions to step up credit extension to small and micro-sized enterprises, the agricultural sector, rural areas, and farmers.