Finance
China will cut reserve requirement ratio by 50 basis points, PBOC chief says
Pan Gongsheng, governor of the People’s Bank of China, delivers a speech during the 2024 Lujiazui Forum on June 19, 2024 in Shanghai, China.
Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty Images
BEIJING — China will cut the amount of cash banks need to have on hand, known as the reserve requirement ratio, or RRR, People’s Bank of China Gov. Pan Gongsheng said during a press conference on Tuesday.
Pan, who was speaking to reporters alongside two other financial regulator heads, did not indicate exactly when the central bank would ease policy but indicated it would happen by the end of the year.
The relatively rare high-level press conference was scheduled after the U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rates last week. That kicked off an easing cycle that gave China’s central bank further room to cut its rates and boost growth in the face of deflationary pressure.
Pan became PBOC governor in July 2023. During his first press conference as central bank governor in January, Pan said the PBOC would cut the amount of cash banks need to have on hand, known as the reserve requirement ratio, or RRR. Such policy announcements are rarely made during such events, and are typically disseminated through online releases and state media.
He then told reporters in March, alongside China’s annual parliamentary meeting, there was room to cut the RRR further. Such a reduction is widely expected in coming months.
Unlike the Fed’s focus on a main interest rate, the PBOC uses a variety of rates to manage monetary policy. The PBOC on Friday did not change its loan prime rate, a benchmark that affects corporate and household loans, including mortgages.
China’s government system also means that policy is set at a far higher level than that of the financial regulators speaking Tuesday. Such top-level meetings in July called for efforts to reach full-year growth targets and to boost domestic demand.
While the PBOC kept the loan prime rate unchanged in the days since the Fed’s cut, it has moved to lower a short-term rate, which determines the supply of money. The PBOC on Monday lowered the 14-day reverse repo rate by 10 basis points to 1.85%, but did not reduce the 7-day reverse repo rate, which was cut in July to 1.7%. Pan has indicated he would like the 7-day rate to become the main policy rate.
China’s economic growth has slowed, dragged down by the real estate slump and low consumer confidence. Economists have called for more stimulus, especially on the fiscal front.
Dario Amodei, Anthropic CEO, speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box outside the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 21st, 2025.
Gerry Miller | CNBC
Anthropic is in talks to raise a $3.5 billion funding round, significantly more than the amount previously expected, CNBC has confirmed.
The round would roughly triple the artificial intelligence startup’s valuation to $61.5 billion, according to two sources familiar with the deal, who asked not to be named because the details aren’t public. Lightspeed Ventures is leading the funding, with participation from General Catalyst and others, the sources said.
The financing, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, signals continued investor demand for top-tier AI companies, even in the face of potential disruption from China’s DeepSeek. Anthropic is backed by Amazon and Google, and had initially set out to raise $2 billion, according to a source.
Anthropic declined to comment.
The company’s last private market valuation was $18 billion. Amazon has poured $8 billion into the startup.
Anthropic was founded by early OpenAI employees and is the creator of the popular chatbot Claude. Earlier Monday, Anthropic released what it says is it’s “most intelligent AI model yet. Its so-called hybrid model combines an ability to reason — or stopping to think about complex answers — with a traditional model that spits out answers in real time.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon on Monday said the U.S. government is inefficient and in need of work as the Trump administration terminates thousands of federal employees and works to dismantle agencies including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Dimon was asked by CNBC’s Leslie Picker whether he supported efforts by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. He declined to give what he called a “binary” response, but made comments that supported the overall effort.
“The government is inefficient, not very competent, and needs a lot of work,” Dimon told Picker. “It’s not just waste and fraud, its outcomes.”
The Trump administration’s effort to rein in spending and scrutinize federal agencies “needs to be done,” Dimon added.
“Why are we spending the money on these things? Are we getting what we deserve? What should we change?” Dimon said. “It’s not just about the deficit, its about building the right policies and procedures and the government we deserve.”
Dimon said if DOGE overreaches with its cost-cutting efforts or engages in activity that’s not legal, “the courts will stop it.”
“I’m hoping it’s quite successful,” he said.
In the wide-ranging interview, Dimon also addressed his company’s push to have most workers in office five days a week, as well as his views on the Ukraine conflict, tariffs and the U.S. consumer.
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