The reserve requirement ratio was lowered today, injecting over 200 billion yuan into the market, reports China Securities Journal.

On September 15, the Central Bank announced a 1 percent cut in the reserve requirement for all financial institutions except the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications and Postal Savings Bank of China.

The Bank had already announced a 0.5-percent cut on October 8. Taken together, the two cuts have injected more than 300 billion yuan into the banking system.

Meanwhile the Shibor and the weighted average interest rate of interbank hypothecated repurchase agreements have both been falling since the end of September, indicating increasingly ample liquidity in the interbank market.

For more details, please read the complete story in Chinese:

(http://paper.cs.com.cn/html/2008-10/15/content_18290841.htm)

(China.org.cn by Fan Junmei, October 15, 2008)