Good news from China China's central bank injected fresh funds through a medium-term lending facility on Friday while keeping a tight rein on short-term funding in an effort to dampen speculative investment. Chinese banks extended 1.1 trillion yuan ($159 billion) in net new yuan loans in April, above analysts' expectations. "While people were fearing tightening monetary policy in China would reduce growth, it's unlikely the Chinese will really push a hard tightening. They want to keep the economy on a very even keel in the run up to politburo change in the autumn," Nitesh Shah, commodity strategist at ETF Securities, said.
Reining in excessive local government debt and the shadow banking sector in China has been high on the central government's agenda in recent weeks, leading to concerns growth would stall.