Policy starts to turn

Policymakers started talking in late October of the need for “fine-tuning”. There is now mounting evidence that policy has begun to shift direction. The People’s Bank lowered the yield on one-year bills, widely read as a signal of the policy stance, at each of its last two auctions, while its latest quarterly report hints that controlling inflation is no longer the central pre-occupation. Banks’ excess reserves have risen, helping new lending in October to rebound more than most expected. But the property market campaign, including restrictions on credit to developers and on property purchases, continues.