Credit growth may slow

Tighter monetary conditions with slower credit growth are possible in China next year, given expectations of higher domestic inflation and continual interest rate hikes in the world's major economies, when liquidity risks become the top concern, according to economists.

Zhu Haibin, chief China economist with JPMorgan Chase & Co, expects the Chinese monetary authority to retain a "neutral" monetary policy in 2018, which means benchmark policy rates, or the one-year deposit and lending rates, will stay at the current level, and there will be no change to the cash amount that should be reserved by commercial banks, or the reserve requirement ratio.

Actual total social financing growth, as well as the credit expansion rate, may slow moderately as the policy focus on deleveraging will continue next year, said Zhu.