Briefly

Central bank skips reverse repos

The People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, skipped open market operations via reverse repos on Friday. The banking system reported a reasonable and sufficient amount of liquidity at this time, the PBOC said in an online statement. A total of 200 billion yuan ($28.28 billion) in the medium-term lending facility matured on Friday. 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.

New mask material production line set up

A subsidiary of China's largest oil and gas producer PetroChina has put into operation a new production line of melt-blown nonwoven fabric in Northeast China's Liaoning province. It is expected to manufacture 500 metric tons of melt-blown nonwoven fabric a year. Another production line with the same annual capacity is being built to further boost the raw material supply to mask producers, according to PetroChina Liaoyang Petrochemical Co. As the essential material to make medical masks, melt-blown nonwoven fabric is the filtering layer in the middle part of the mask.

Sichuan's foreign trade volume rises

The foreign trade volume of Southwest China's Sichuan province rose 10.7 percent to 159.04 billion yuan ($22.49 billion) in the first quarter of the year, according to customs data. In the first quarter, the province's exports totaled 80.12 billion yuan, up 1.2 percent year-on-year and its imports grew 22.3 percent to 78.92 billion yuan, Chengdu customs data showed. Foreign-funded enterprises in the province reported a 17.9-percent year-on-year growth in foreign trade in the first three months of the year. Mechanical and electrical products have been the dominant products exported in the first quarter of the year, accounting for 85.3 percent of the province's total exports.

Xinhua