PBOC seen raising money market rates three times in 2018 – Bloomberg Survey

The results of the latest Bloomberg survey of 31 analysts showed that a majority of them expect the PBOC to hike the reverse repo rates by 5 bps three times this year.

Key Findings:

Reverse-repo rates to rise 15 basis points in 2018.

Q1 is seen for the first hike, then Q2 and Q4.

Economists don't forecast any change to the benchmark rate, which sets borrowing costs economy-wide, through early 2020.

Forecasters also project a broad-based cut to the reserve requirement ratio in the fourth quarter, to 16.5 percent from 17 percent, separate surveys show.

That’s in addition to a targeted reduction to help the small business that was announced last year and took effect Jan. 1.