The People's Bank of China on Friday conducted 7 billion yuan ($1.02 billion) of seven-day reverse repos at an interest rate of 2 percent. The move is aimed at keeping liquidity reasonable and ample in the banking system, according to the central bank. A total of 180 billion yuan of reverse repos matured on the same day, resulting in a net withdrawal of 173 billion yuan from the financial system. A reverse repo is a process in which the central bank purchases securities from commercial banks through bidding, with an agreement to sell them back in the future.

Shanghai's foreign trade hits record high

Shanghai's foreign trade hit a record high of 681.56 billion yuan ($99.12 billion) in the first two months of this year, with a slight year-on-year increase of 0.7 percent, data from Shanghai Customs showed. In the period, the metropolis saw imports rise 4.7 percent year-on-year to 415.99 billion yuan, while its exports fell 4.9 percent year-on-year to 265.57 billion yuan, said the customs authority. Private enterprises in Shanghai posted strong performance as their foreign trade reached around 208.48 billion yuan in the two months, up 13.1 percent year-on-year, accounting for 30.6 percent of the metropolis's total trade value. From January to February, Shanghai's trade volume with other Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership members reached 231.87 billion yuan, up 2.5 percent year-on-year, while its imports and exports volume with the European Union reached 137.45 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5 percent.

Renminbi strengthens against greenback

The central parity rate of the Chinese currency renminbi, or the yuan, strengthened 335 pips to 6.8374 against the US dollar on Friday, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System. In China's spot foreign exchange market, the yuan is allowed to rise or fall by 2 percent from the central parity rate each trading day. The central parity rate of the yuan against the US dollar is based on a weighted average of prices offered by market makers before the opening of the interbank market each business day.

China Mobile net profit up 8% in 2022

China Mobile reported net profit growth of 8 percent year-on-year in 2022. The company's net profit was 125.46 billion yuan ($18.26 billion) last year, the company said in a statement. The operator raked in 937.3 billion yuan in operating revenues in 2022, up 10.5 percent year-on-year, according to the statement. By the end of last year, the company had 975 million mobile subscribers, with its 5G subscribers totaling 614 million.