China’s central bank kept its key policy rates unchanged on Friday while reporting a net withdrawal of liquidity from the financial market, the Wall Street Journal reported. The People’s Bank of China held its one-year medium-term lending facility steady at 2.5% while injecting 387 billion yuan ($53.80 billion) worth of liquidity through the monetary tool, according to a statement on its website. There was a total of CNY481 billion of MLF loans due Friday, indicating a net withdrawal of liquidity.

China’s bank loans expanded at the slowest pace on record in February, underscoring weakness in borrowing demand despite steps by the central bank to ease policy and help the economy, Bloomberg News reported. The stock of yuan loans grew 9.7% in February from a year ago, the lowest in data going back to 2003, according to figures released by the People’s Bank of China on Friday. It was also the first time the rate dropped below 10%. The stock of aggregate financing — a broad measure of credit — expanded just 9%, also near a record low.

Country Garden Holdings Co. missed a coupon payment on a yuan bond for the first time, adding to the woes of the Chinese developer that is facing a lawsuit seeking its liquidation offshore, Bloomberg News reported. The builder’s main onshore unit hasn’t fully prepared a 96 million yuan ($13 million) coupon that came due on Tuesday for a 4.8% yuan bond maturing in 2026, the company said in a response to Bloomberg. There is a 30 trading-day grace period for the payment, it added.

China should rely more on structural reforms and less on economic stimulus to drive economic growth this year, Liu Shijin, a policy adviser to the central bank, said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Liu, a member of the People's Bank of China monetary policy committee, said the economy can achieve its growth target of around 5% this year but that more effort is needed on both stimulus and structural reforms.

China's export and import growth in the January-February period beat forecasts, suggesting global trade is turning a corner in an encouraging signal for policymakers as they try to shore up a stuttering economic recovery, Reuters reported. China's improved export data joins those of South Korea and Germany, and Taiwan, who all saw their shipments top expectations over the first two months of the year, with the Asian economies benefiting from a surge in demand for semiconductors.

The head of China's state planner said on Wednesday that the government's 5% economic growth target this year, which many analysts say is ambitious, is achievable and that he expects the world's second-largest economy to have a good first quarter, Reuters reported. Speaking at a rare joint briefing on the sidelines of the annual parliament meeting in Beijing with China's finance minister, commerce minister, central bank chief, and head of the securities regulator, Zheng Shanjie said officials would step up economic policy adjustments this year to consolidate a recovery.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang announced an ambitious 2024 economic growth target of around 5% on Tuesday, promising steps to transform the country's development model and defuse risks fuelled by bankrupt property developers and indebted cities, Reuters reported. Delivering his maiden work report at the annual meeting of the National People's Congress, China's rubber-stamp parliament, Li also flagged higher defence spending, while hardening the rhetoric on Taiwan.

Chinese investment can’t be the solution for cash-strapped Canadian miners seeking financial backing, according to Canada’s natural resources minister, Bloomberg News reported. “We need to be working to solve access to capital issues, but the answer cannot be investment from Chinese state-owned industries,” Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said Tuesday in an interview.

Some of China’s largest insurers are sounding an alarm over the debt risks of China Vanke Co., according to people familiar with the matter, as shares and bonds of the major developer hit record lows on repayment concerns, Bloomberg News reported. At least two Beijing-based insurers that farm out annuity investments told their external portfolio managers late last week to closely monitor Vanke’s credit risks, said the people, asking not to be identified discussing a private matter. One life insurer also told its pension managers to curb exposure, the people added.

Chinese developer Country Garden said on Monday it will consider if it is necessary to apply to the High Court for a validation order at a later stage after evaluating the progress of its offshore restructuring. If the validation order is not applied for or granted, any transfer of shares made after Feb. 27 will be void if the company is liquidated, it said. A liquidation petition was filed against Country Garden on Feb. 27 after it failed to meet repayment obligations. Read more.