China has limited room for further monetary easing: CICC

BEIJING - Investment bank CICC believes there is limited room for China's central bank to use further monetary easing, saying focus would shift to curbing asset bubbles and guarding against financial risks.

Room for further monetary easing is limited because real interest rates have fallen significantly on the back of continued economic reflation, while ample policy tools and accumulated monetary and fiscal loosening since 2015 would ensure stable economic growth this year, a CICC report said.

To stabilize growth, which fell to 6.9 percent in 2015, China cut the benchmark interest rate five times last year. However, it has cautiously refrained from doing so this year over concerns about asset bubbles and the depreciation of the yuan.

China's economy expanded 6.7 percent in the third quarter of 2016, holding steady with the first and second quarters and boosting sentiment that this year's annual GDP target of 6.5 percent to 7 percent is achievable.

CICC forecast that the central bank would not cut benchmark interest rates in 2017 and it may also leave the commercial banks' reserve requirement ratio unchanged in the first half of 2017.