(Yicai Global) April 20 -- On April 17, The Political Bureau under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China urged local governments to help prevent a second wave of Covid-19, to stabilize economic fundamentals and to ensure citizens safety. It asked them to increase the deficit rate, cut reserve requirements, lower benchmark deposit rates and using other measures, such as fiscal and monetary policy, to guarantee economic growth.

On April 15, the People’s Bank of China reduced the rate of its medium-term lending facility loans, which last one year, in the open market by 20 basis points, marking the third downward revision since November and the second since the Covid-19 outbreak.

PBOC’s Digital Currency Research Institute said the central bank is running internal tests on digital currencies at commercial banks, though this does not mean the digitized yuan has officially been issued.

China’s gross domestic product fell 6.8 percent annually in the first quarter due to Covid-19, marking the first quarterly contraction since records began in the early 1990s, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics. Other major economic indicators also fell by varying degrees for the period.

As of April 16, Chinese funds had made 1,417 dividend payments so far this year, up from 870 a year earlier and the highest figure on record for the period.

China’s mainland stock markets rebounded last week as investors expected economic improvement now the pandemic is subsiding in the country. The Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.5 percent throughout the week, while the Shenzhen Component Index jumped 2.2 percent. The ChiNext Price Index, which tracks growth companies listed in Shenzhen, leaped 3.6 percent.

Editor: Tang Shihua