China central bank to promote healthy development of property market

China's central bank said on Saturday it will safeguard the legal rights of home buyers and better satisfy their reasonable living needs, vowing to promote healthy development of the country's real estate market.

The statement from the People's Bank of China (PBOC), made following its fourth-quarter monetary policy committee meeting, is the latest sign that Chinese regulators are marginally easing curbs on the property sector to prevent a hard-landing.

Echoing China's annual Central Economic Work Conference held in early December, the PBOC said it will prioritise economic stability, amid an increasingly severe external environment and the unrelenting global pandemic.

The PBOC said it will keep its monetary policy flexible and appropriate, and liquidity reasonably ample. It will strengthen support to the real economy, with a bias toward small companies.

The central bank reiterated that it will deepen reforms of the forex market and increase the flexibility of the yuan's exchange rate while guiding companies and financial institutions to be "risk neutral".