Economic calendar in Asia Thursday, 20 June 2024 – China interest rate decision

New Zealand economic growth (or contraction) data is due at 2245 GMT (1745 US Eastern time). New Zealand is already in recession (consecutive quarters of economic contraction), a negative today would extend it. New Zealand inflation is 4% y/y way above target. The RBNZ has held rates at 5.5% at seven consecutive meetings and another hold is likely at the next meeting on July 10th. At its most recent meeting, and the following press conference from Governor Orr, projections showed the potential for a rate cut towards the end of the year or early next.

The People’s Bank of China sets its Loan Prime Rates (LPR) today. The widely held expectation is for an hold decision. Earlier this week the Medium-term Lending Facility (MLF) rate was left unchanged,

• People’s Bank of China set MLF rate at 2.5% (expected 2.5%, prior 2.5%)

this is often a good sign of no change coming for LPRs, but not always.

Current LPR’s

• 1-year Loan Prime Rate 3.45%
• 5-year Loan Prime Rate 3.95%

• the 5-year was cut in February: PBoC’s largest 5 year LPR rate cut ever. The 5-year is a benchmark for mortgage rates in China and a big part of the reasoning behind the PBoC cut was support for the deeply troubled property sector.

• This snapshot from the ForexLive economic data calendar, access it here.
• The times in the left-most column are GMT.
• The numbers in the right-most column are the ‘prior’ (previous month/quarter as the case may be) result. The number in the column next to that, where there is a number, is the consensus median expected.
• I’ve noted data for New Zealand with text

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.