As China’s economy has descended into deflation, the central bank’s lack of urgency has been a source of frustration. Officials at the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) at first expressed confidence that deflation was, so to speak, transitory. When it persisted, they worried less about falling prices than about the side-effects of fighting them. They were reluctant to ease monetary policy decisively as China’s currency was too weak, banks’ profit margins too slim and bond yields too low.
