Cash bonanza: Central banks pump economies with emergency funds

Central banks worldwide are scrambling to shore up money markets after cratering share prices drove a rush for cash, hitting many regional currencies and threatening a surge in short-term borrowing costs.

In China – which has born the brunt of the economic fallout from the coronavirus in the first few months of 2020 – authorities late on Friday cut banks’ reserve requirements for the second time this year.

With most developed economies now also moving into partial shutdowns as the epidemic tightens its global grip, Norway and Sweden announced far-reaching stimulus packages as European trading got under way.

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, meanwhile, drew fire for not doing more after the ECB announced relatively modest measures on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve injected $500bn into the United States banking system and has made another $1 trillion available.

“We should see more action from central banks because what we need here is a short-term liquidity bridge,” said Mohammed Apabhai, head of Asian trading strategy for Citigroup.

“The issue is that if we don’t see that, then this situation risks becoming a more systemic problem.”

Early on Friday, Japan’s central bank pledged to release cash into the markets by buying 200 billion yen ($1.90bn) of five to 10-year government bonds and injecting a further 1.5 trillion yen ($14bn) in two-week loans.

Sources told Reuters news agency that the Japanese government and central bank officials are more seriously weighing the risk of cancelling the Olympic Games, scheduled in Tokyo in July.

China’s central bank said it was cutting target-compliant banks’ reserve requirement ratios (RRR) by 50-100 basis points, releasing 550 billion yuan ($79bn) to shore up the economy.

Norway’s central bank joined the growing list of monetary authorities that have slashed borrowing costs in recent days with an unexpected half-point cut in its key policy rate. It also offered the first in a series of emergency three-month loans to the banking industry.

Sweden’s central bank said it would lend up to 500 billion Swedish crowns ($51bn) to local firms via banks to ensure they had access to credit.

Some companies have begun hoarding cash and accessing credit lines as they look to balance the need to pay wages and overheads as their income is hit by the drop in everyday activity.

Air France-KLM, like other major airlines heavily exposed to global flight restrictions imposed to try to limit the coronavirus’s spread, said it had drawn down on 1.1 billion euros ($1.2bn) worth of its revolving credit facility to help its financial position.

Will it be enough?

The succession of central bank moves came after the US Federal Reserve on Thursday surprised markets by injecting $500bn into the financial system, and pledged to add $1 trillion more.

That unscheduled offer of effectively unlimited dollars came as US stocks plunged nearly 10 percent in their biggest one-day losses since the 1987 market crash and marked an attempt to avoid the credit market paralysis that occurred during the 2008 global financial crisis.

Heartened by the Fed’s cash bonanza, European stock markets on Friday clawed their way tentatively back from their worst day ever while the dollar posted broad gains and US stock index futures jumped.

But world stocks remained on course for their worst week since the financial crisis, and deep-seated concerns about Italy – the epicentre of Europe’s coronavirus outbreak – extended losses for its government bonds after their worst day in nine years.

In a foretaste of what may be to come for other countries at the sharp end of the epidemic, China’s exports contracted sharply in January and February amid massive disruptions to business operations and supply chains, data showed.

The ECB gave support on Thursday by offering banks loans with rates as low as minus 0.75 percent, below its minus 0.5 percent deposit rate, and promised to increase bond purchases.

However, it did not cut benchmark interest rates as many investors had expected, and President Lagarde faced criticism for saying it was not the central bank’s job to help virus-stricken euro-zone countries struggling in the debt markets.

In Tokyo, sources familiar with the Bank of Japan’s thinking said it might take further action next week by topping up purchases of commercial paper and corporate bonds.

Ayako Sera, market strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank in Tokyo, said such moves were a possibility. “But this only benefits large companies. Something else is needed to direct support to small firms,” Sera added.

Earlier in Asia, Indonesia’s central bank bought 6 trillion rupiahs ($405m) of government bonds in an auction, after Australia’s central bank injected 8.8 billion Australian dollars ($5.52bn), an unusually large sum, into its financial system.

In South Korea, like Italy on the front line of the outbreak, the finance ministry met and agreed to cooperate with its central bank, following speculation that an emergency interest rate cut could be on the cards.