Reform process
The general idea of determining the reform is foreign currency first, then local currency; Loan first, then deposit; First long-term, large quantity, then short-term, small quantity.
1 and 1995 "the plan of the people's bank of China on deepening interest rate reform during the ninth five-year plan" initially put forward the basic idea of interest rate marketization reform.
2. 65438+1 June 19961,liberalize the interbank lending market interest rate, and realize that both borrowers and lenders can independently determine the lending rate according to the market capital supply and demand.
3.1June, 1997, the inter-bank bond market was officially launched, and at the same time, the bond repurchase and spot bond trading interest rates in the bond market were liberalized.
4. 1998, the floating range of loan interest rate of financial institutions to small enterprises was expanded from 10% to 20%, and the highest floating range of loan interest rate of rural credit cooperatives was expanded from 40% to 50%.
5.1March, 1998, reform the rediscount interest rate and the discount interest rate generation mechanism, and liberalize the discount and rediscount interest rates.
6.1From June 5438 to June 5438+ 10, 1999, the insurance company implemented the agreed interest rate for large time deposits, and the interest rate for large time deposits of more than 30 million yuan and more than 5 years was negotiated by the insurance company and the commercial bank.
7. 1999, the maximum loan interest rate of financial institutions below the county level is allowed to rise by 30%, and the maximum loan interest rate of small enterprises is extended to all medium-sized enterprises.
8. On September 2, 2000, Kloc-0/,the foreign exchange interest rate management system was reformed, and the foreign currency loan interest rate was liberalized; The interest rate of large foreign currency deposits of more than $3 million shall be determined by financial institutions through consultation with customers.
9. In 2002, expand the pilot scope of interest rate reform of rural credit cooperatives and further expand the floating range of interest rates of rural credit cooperatives; Unify the foreign currency interest rate management policies of Chinese and foreign financial institutions.
10.in March 2002, small foreign currency deposits made by domestic and foreign financial institutions to China residents were included in the current interest rate management scope of the People's Bank of China, so as to realize fair treatment of foreign currency interest rate policies of Chinese and foreign financial institutions.
In promoting the reform of interest rate marketization, Bank of China has done a lot of decentralization work:
After 1996, the inter-bank lending market interest rate, bond market interest rate and the inter-bank market national debt and policy financial bond issuance interest rate were successively liberalized; Liberalize the interest rates of domestic foreign currency loans and large foreign currency deposits; Pilot RMB long-term large-sum agreement deposits; Gradually expand the floating range of RMB loan interest rate.
On July 19, 2000, at the press conference held by the State Council Information Office, Dai Xianglong, then governor of the People's Bank of China, announced that China would complete the overall plan of interest rate marketization in three years, first liberalizing foreign currency interest rates and then liberalizing RMB interest rates; Let go of the loan interest rate first and then the deposit interest rate.
On June 2004, 65438+ 10 1, the central bank once again expanded the floating range of loan interest rates of financial institutions; On March 25, the floating interest rate system for refinancing was implemented; 10 year10.29, the upper limit of loan interest rate of commercial banks was released, the upper limit of floating loan interest rate of urban and rural credit cooperatives was expanded to 2.3 times of the benchmark interest rate, and the RMB deposit interest rate was lowered, thus achieving the phased goal of "controlling the lower limit of loan interest rate and the upper limit of deposit interest rate".
On June 365438+1October 3 1 day, 2005, the central bank issued the Report on Steadily Promoting the Marketization of Interest Rates. The report pointed out that the core issue of interest rate marketization is to change the risk pricing mechanism of financing activities and make commercial banks become financial institutions with real trading risks or pricing risks. Specifically, it is a gradual transition to the central bank no longer uniformly stipulate the deposit and loan interest rates of financial institutions, but uses monetary policy tools to directly regulate the money market interest rates, thus indirectly affecting the deposit and loan interest rates of financial institutions.
On March 16, 2005, the central bank lowered the interest rate of excess reserve deposits again and fully liberalized the interest rate of interbank deposits of financial institutions. At present, only a few interest rates, such as the upper limit of deposit interest rate, the lower limit of loan interest rate and the statutory deposit reserve interest rate, have not yet entered the market-oriented reform process.
Recently, Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the central bank, publicly admitted that the interest rate marketization reform in China is slower than other reforms. The central bank hopes that this process will go faster and is actively promoting the development of commercial banks in this direction; At present, the conditions of interest rate marketization in China are becoming more and more mature, and commercial banks should further learn to decide the deposit and loan prices independently.
(B) defects in the official interest rate
1. The government sets a lower interest rate level for the nominal interest rate, which will stimulate investment growth, but at the same time reduce residents' savings.
2. Interest rate control leads to inefficient use of funds. As mentioned above, when the interest rate is controlled and at a low level, the financing cost of investors is greatly reduced, and some inefficient enterprises that could not borrow money can also obtain funds at this time, which urges some developing countries with abundant labor resources but lack of capital to improperly encourage the process of capital replacing labor, which is not conducive to giving full play to the advantages of their labor-intensive products. Replacing leading factors with non-leading factors is a great loss of the efficiency of a country's economic system.
3. Interest rate control usually includes lowering interest rate level and credit rationing. The consequence of artificially lowering the interest rate level is to greatly stimulate the desire of fund demanders to obtain loans, but the credit rationing system limits the limited capital flow to a certain extent. The contradiction between excessive capital demand and limited rationing leads to the spontaneous response of financial black market to insufficient supervision, but many factors lacking legal protection determine its destructiveness to economic order and social stability. The credit rationing system induces frequent "rent-seeking" behaviors and intensifies the breeding of social corruption. Because in real life, credit rationing is not entirely based on the government's industrial policy, but on the borrower's funds and reputation, personal connections or friendships, and even the amount of kickbacks paid by the borrower to allocate the flow of funds. In this way, enterprises will try their best to win preferential credit funds regardless of the improvement of their intrinsic value.
In view of the above disadvantages and the constant impact of the wave of financial liberalization, western developed countries and newly industrialized countries began to gradually lift interest rate control and relax financial constraints in the 1970s after experiencing the development period brought by interest rate control. In China, the disadvantages of strictly controlling interest rates are increasingly prominent, which seriously affects the further deepening of reform and economic development. Therefore, it is an inevitable trend to relax interest rate control and realize interest rate marketization.
(3) Perspective of the current interest rate system in China.
1, non-marketization of interest rate formation
In western market economy countries, under normal circumstances, the central bank does not directly determine the deposit and loan interest rates of financial institutions, but refers to the changes in the money market and macroeconomic conditions, and affects the market interest rate level by setting the refinancing interest rate, rediscount interest rate, deposit reserve interest rate and open market operation, thus affecting the investment and consumption of the whole society.
But judging from the situation in China, the formation of interest rate is mainly controlled by the political and economic intentions of the government. The government has not only stipulated the overall level of interest rates, but also specified the specific levels of various interest rates (that is, interest rate structure), and strictly controlled them through legal and administrative means, making interest rates seriously "non-marketized": when and how high interest rates need to be adjusted, and how big the floating range of interest rates is. They are all stipulated by the state-this interest rate management model is still a highly centralized planned management model-all localities follow a unified interest rate policy, and cannot flexibly play the role of adjusting interest rates according to the imbalance of regional economic development and the difference between supply and demand of funds, but can only passively implement the interest rate policy formulated by the state. This situation limits the adjustment of interest rates to different regions, industries and products, and weakens the effect of hierarchical macro-control in China.
For a long time, from the deposit and loan interest rates of commercial banks in the People's Bank of China to the deposit and loan interest rates of residents, enterprises and institutions in commercial banks, from the current interest rate to the fixed interest rate, from the short-term interest rate to the long-term interest rate, all without exception, have been uniformly set by the People's Bank of China. This means that no matter how different the management level of banks is, the prices of products they get in the market are similar. This makes most of China's banking system in a non-competitive state. Moreover, once the interest rate determined by administrative instructions is determined, it will remain unchanged for a long time, and commercial banks and non-financial institutions must act cautiously and strictly enforce the mandatory interest rate. This makes the interest rate in a state of "dead leverage" for a long time, stagnates at a low level, and lacks an active and flexible adjustment mechanism. Although according to the regulations of the central bank, all commercial banks and grass-roots banks enjoy the right to float interest rates within a certain range, in the actual production process, due to the interception of interest rate floating rights by superior banks and the administrative intervention of local governments, the right to float interest rates is often nominal for grass-roots banks, and there is no need to implement floating interest rates in the market.
When determining the interest rate, the People's Bank of China often sets the interest rate level outside the relationship between capital supply and demand. It focuses on the adjustment of the interests of central banks, finance, businesses, enterprises and individuals, rather than the actual use of social funds, and even uses interest rate adjustment as a tool to reduce the burden on enterprises and solve the difficulties of state-owned enterprises. Theoretically, it is determined by the central bank according to the economic indicators such as the supply and demand of social funds, the average profit rate of social funds, the price level, the profit level of enterprises and banks, and the interbank lending market interest rate. However, these indicators are sometimes difficult to predict accurately and sometimes have a certain time lag effect, so it is easy to produce information distortion. These factors make the People's Bank of China subjectively blind in determining the interest rate, and it is difficult to truly reflect the market equilibrium, which has a great impact on the efficiency of the use of funds in the entire financial system.
The People's Bank of China often adopts the "trial and error method", that is, first adjust and then see the effect, without readjusting. Because there are many human factors in this adjustment, if people's understanding is biased, the determination of their interest rate level will inevitably be wrong. In addition, the adjustment of interest rate in China often lags behind the price increase, and the adjustment method is forced to be passive, which deviates from the adjustment goal, cuts off the connection between the benchmark interest rate and the market interest rate, greatly weakens the adjustment function of interest rate, and causes the unscientific determination of interest rate level.
So far, China's interest rate management system has not fundamentally got rid of the management mode of planned economy, and interest rate policy and interest rate reform rarely consider how to guide the flow of funds and adjust the allocation of funds through market mechanisms. The consequence of this is to abandon the principle of market economy, and it is difficult to encourage commercial banks to increase credit supply by means of interest rate, so that the change of real interest rate can not truly reflect the relationship between capital supply and demand, thus changing the structure of capital demand and demand, and can not automatically tend to balance through the role of market mechanism, which is not conducive to the increase of capital formation quantity and the improvement of capital formation quality. Although for collective enterprises, foreign-funded enterprises and private enterprises, the change of interest rate is directly related to their financing cost and expected profit rate, so it has a strong constraint on their investment, but the investment of the central government and local governments is basically ineffective, and the investment of state-owned enterprises lacks due sensitivity to the change of interest rate. The investment of these three types of investors accounts for the vast majority of the whole investment, so on the whole, China's current interest rate mechanism is not conducive to financial development and economic growth.
2. The central bank's interest rate decision is not independent.
Under the current interest rate management system in China, the determination of interest rate level and the formulation of differential interest rate policy are strictly controlled by the government, showing a high degree of planning and closure. On the surface, the interest rate level is determined by the central bank, that is, the People's Bank of China. China seems to be more convenient than western developed countries in regulating interest rates, and it does not need to operate by other monetary policy means. As long as the central bank and the State Council agree to adjust the interest rate, the interest rate target can be achieved, and the real economic variables will respond to the interest rate changes. However, this is not the case. The central bank only enjoys a certain proportion of interest rate floating rights, lacking the autonomy to operate interest rate leverage, while commercial banks can only implement the current interest rate system and basically have no right to float freely.
According to China's current People's Bank Law, China's real interest rate decision-making power is the right to change interest rates, which does not lie in the central bank that manages national financial undertakings, nor in the grass-roots banks that directly operate financial services, but is highly concentrated in the central government, that is, the State Council. Specifically, at present, the decision of interest rate level in China is made by the Monetary Policy Committee. The Monetary Policy Committee consists of the People's Bank of China, commercial banks, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the government's comprehensive economic management departments (Planning Commission, Economic and Trade Commission, Ministry of Finance) and academic circles. Members of the Committee are appointed by Premier the State Council, and the chairman is the Governor of the People's Bank of China. The Monetary Policy Committee holds regular meetings to study major issues of monetary policy and money supply, interest rate and exchange rate policies, and make recommendations to the State Council. It can be seen that the decision of China's interest rate policy is not made by the central bank, but is generally the result of various interest groups such as the competent departments of enterprises, commercial banks, financial departments and the central bank reaching a balance of interests through multi-party consultation, and the final decision is made in the State Council. When and how the Monetary Policy Committee will meet is not announced in advance, and the basis for decision-making is not explained in the form of a communique, which is not transparent enough to make it impossible to analyze and study the future trend of interest rate changes. Moreover, because the relevant parties pay more attention to the interest distribution function of interest rate than its economic adjustment function, the interests of various departments are often contradictory, and it is difficult to reach an agreement in repeated bargaining in such negotiations, and the interest rate adjustment plan often misses the appropriate opportunity. If we consider the time lag outside the interest rate policy, China's interest rate adjustment is obviously lagging behind. Obviously, this kind of interest rate management system is too centralized, rigid and dull, which can't reflect the actual changes of market capital supply and demand and doesn't conform to the market economy.
Interest rates go with the market and play the role of interest rate leverage.
3. The target of interest rate policy is misplaced.
Among many defects of the current interest rate system in China, the most important one is the dislocation of interest rate policy objectives. Under the planned economy system, the function of interest rate as an economic lever has deteriorated, and the goal of interest rate policy is not to promote the development of social productive forces, but to serve the adjustment of production relations. For example, the loan interest rate for private economy is higher than that for state-owned economy, mainly to promote the transformation of private economy and strengthen the leading position of state-owned economy; The loan interest rate of rural cooperative economy is lower than that of state-owned economy, which is conducive to promoting farmers to take the road of cooperatives; Cash management and preferential loan interest rates are implemented for enterprises and institutions whose credit is concentrated in national banks, with the aim of prohibiting commercial credit and helping credit to be concentrated in national banks, and so on.
With the establishment and development of socialist market economy, interest rate plays an increasingly important role as an economic lever. There are three main objectives of interest rate adjustment: one is to keep an eye on inflation, the other is to adjust the distribution of benefits, and the third is to optimize the allocation of resources. However, among these three goals, due to the lack of understanding of the function and means of interest rate leverage to optimize the allocation of capital resources, although it is also used to adjust the macro economy to a certain extent, the decision-making authorities attach the most importance to using interest rates to adjust complex economic relations and adjust the distribution of interests, mainly to weigh the interests of enterprises, banks, finance and other departments, especially the determination of interest rate level is always subject to the demand for funds, and the affordability of enterprises should be considered first. By controlling the loan interest rate at a low level to reduce the burden on enterprises, its essence is to use the interest rate policy as a financial means and tool to solve the difficulties of state-owned enterprises-for example, 1996 lowering the interest rate is to solve the problem of enterprise losses. This method completely deviates from the requirements of the law of value and the relationship between supply and demand of funds, and it is hard to say that it is somewhat scientific. In fact, China's current interest rate adjustment model aimed at reducing the interest burden of enterprises is not conducive to the system transformation of state-owned enterprises, nor to the transformation of economic growth mode of state-owned economic sectors. Only by considering the change of interest rate level from the overall situation of national economy can interest rate play its role as an important tool of indirect macro-control.
In western mature market economy countries, the central bank's interest rate changes focus on the overall macroeconomic situation. For example, the interest rate policy of the Federal Reserve is mainly to maintain the balance between social supply and demand and avoid economic recession and inflation, not to mention the interest expense burden of enterprises.
In fact, in the short term, the policy goal of interest rate should be to adjust economic variables and maintain the good operation of macro-economy. In the long run, it should be transferred to the function of optimizing resource allocation. If it is used to adjust economic relations and the distribution of interests, it will be like the saying goes, "If you keep cutting, it will be chaotic."
4. Low interest rate policy and low institutional efficiency.
Interest rate has always played an important role in the development strategies and demand management policies of contemporary countries all over the world. By directly affecting savings, investment and money demand, interest rates will greatly affect the revenue and expenditure, total demand, output and employment of the public sector, and will have an important impact on the international balance of payments. In many developing countries and industrialized countries, because interest rates are not determined by market supply and demand, they are mainly regulated by administrative means, so the choice of interest rates has become a major decision-making issue for decision-making authorities. In order to stimulate investment and economic growth, many developing countries adopt the practice of limiting interest rates to a low level or negative real interest rates, and keep them unchanged for a long time.
Since interest rate is the price of financial commodities, it should be basically balanced with the prices of other commodities. However, from the reality, for a long time, China has not only managed the interest rate too tightly and concentrated its management authority, but also implemented a low interest rate policy to support the recovery and development of the national economy. At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, it was absolutely necessary for China to support the recovery of the national economy with low interest rates. However, under the influence of long-term planned economy habits, the low interest rate policy was unilaterally emphasized as the superiority of socialism, ignoring the leverage of interest rates, which led to the continuous decline of interest rates. For example, since 1959, the monthly interest rate of all loan interest rates has been lowered to 6%, and the main types of savings have been reduced to three, with interest rates of 0.8%, 3% and 4% respectively. Since the reform and opening up, interest rates have been adjusted many times, but this adjustment is forced by the pressure of inflation, and the extent of adjustment has not changed the essence of low interest rates, resulting in the phenomenon of negative interest rates appearing again and again in the context of inflation-1985-1994 has seen negative interest rates in six years, and 1986 is as high as 65438+.
With the increasing harm caused by interest rate control, more and more people realize that interest rates should return to the true colors of the market. The current planned interest rate management system goes beyond the direct administrative provisions of the capital market on interest rates, obviously lags behind the needs of economic development, and is incompatible with the market economic system, so it must be reformed. The ultimate goal of reform should be to realize the marketization of interest rate formation. In the whole movement of social funds, we should establish diversified interest rate management system, interest rate formation mechanism, interest rate structure system and interest rate transmission mechanism under the indirect control of the state, based on market supply and demand, with the central bank's benchmark interest rate as the core and market interest rate as the main body.
1992 the decision of the third plenary session of the 14th CPC central Committee on several issues concerning the establishment of a socialist market economic system pointed out: "the central bank adjusts the benchmark interest rate in a timely manner according to the supply and demand of funds, and allows the deposit and loan interest rates of commercial banks to float freely within the prescribed range." 1993 12 the State Council's decision on financial system reform further pointed out: "The People's Bank of China will set the upper and lower limits of deposit and loan interest rates to further rationalize the relationship among deposit interest rates, loan interest rates and securities interest rates; All kinds of interest rates should reflect the differences in duration, cost and risk, and maintain a reasonable spread; Gradually form a market interest rate system based on the central bank interest rate. " This reform arrangement outlines a framework of interest rate reform in China and is the guiding ideology of interest rate marketization in China.
(D) the connotation and extension of interest rate monetization
1, the connotation of interest rate marketization
The so-called interest rate marketization means that the central bank relaxes the direct control over the interest rates of commercial banks, leaving the decision-making power of interest rates to the market, and market participants decide the interest rates independently. The central bank forms the interest rate of funds by setting and adjusting the rediscount rate, refinancing rate and buying and selling securities in the open market, so that the ground between them reflects the monetary policy of the central bank. In short, interest rate marketization means that the interest rate level is determined by the relationship between supply and demand in the capital market, and the government gives up direct administrative intervention in interest rates.
The interest rate management system refers to the authority, scope, degree, total measures and interest rate transmission mechanism of the financial management authority or central bank of a country or region. It is an important part of a country or region's economic management system and the basis for the interest rate policy to play its role. Interest rate marketization is relative to interest rate control. In the case of interest rate control, interest rates are uniformly set by the central bank. Commercial banks and non-bank financial institutions cannot independently determine deposit and loan interest rates and interest rates of various financial assets according to the supply and demand of funds and the operation of their own funds. In the case of interest rate marketization, interest rates are determined by financial institutions independently according to the supply and demand situation of financial markets and the guiding signals of the central bank. The central bank only sets and adjusts the statutory reserve ratio, refinancing interest rate and rediscount interest rate through the predetermined annual monetary policy plan, conducts open market operations and other guiding windows, and transmits the central bank's credit and interest rate policy signals to financial institutions with the help of the internal operating mechanism of the money market, thus indirectly affecting the interest rate level of the financial market.
Therefore, interest rate marketization mainly refers to a dynamic process in which the government gradually abandons financial repression, cultivates and innovates market players, improves and perfects financial market trading rules, and gradually relaxes or even cancels interest rate control in the process of changing the interest rate management system in developing countries from a well-controlled interest rate set by the state to a market interest rate system managed by the central bank. In this process, under the guidance of the central bank's plan and macro-control, the interest rate is determined by both borrowers and lenders according to the relationship between supply and demand in the capital market, thus forming a market equilibrium interest rate determined by the market mechanism under the management of the central bank. The central bank's planning guidance means that the central bank formulates and adjusts benchmark interest rates such as statutory reserve ratio, refinancing rate and rediscount rate through a predetermined annual monetary policy plan, as well as guiding windows such as the central bank's open market operation to guide market interest rates. Macro-control of the central bank means that the central bank conducts financial monitoring on the business activities of commercial banks and non-bank financial institutions according to financial laws and regulations and necessary administrative means.
Interest rate marketization is rich in connotation, which should at least include the following aspects: financial transaction subjects have the right to decide the interest rate, the quantitative structure, term structure and risk structure of interest rate should be chosen by the market itself, and the central bank has the right to indirectly influence the interest rate of financial assets.
1. The financial transaction entity has the right to decide the interest rate.
Modern economic theory holds that interest rate is the price of money and financial goods, which is determined by the balance of money supply and demand. Therefore, the real meaning of interest rate marketization is that commercial banks and other financial institutions should be given considerable autonomy in the interest rate management mechanism, rather than the traditional centralized instruction management, which leaves the decision-making power of deposit and loan interest rates of commercial banks and other financial institutions to the market, and the market interest rate is determined by the supply and demand of funds in the market. On the basis of market interest rate, market participants can decide the interest rate independently according to the characteristics of different financial transactions. The subject of financial transactions shall have the right to bargain on the scale, price, repayment period, guarantee method and other specific terms of their capital transactions. The way of bargaining may be interview and bidding, or it may be that the supply and demand sides of funds repeatedly weigh and choose between different customers or service providers.
2. The quantitative structure, term structure and risk structure of interest rate should be chosen by the market spontaneously.
Like any commodity transaction, there is also a price difference between wholesale and retail in financial transactions. But unlike it, the price of capital transactions should also be different in terms of duration and risk. It is neither necessary nor possible for interest rate planning authorities to scientifically calculate the quantitative structure, term structure and risk structure of interest rates. On the contrary, both parties to a financial transaction should have the right to reach an agreement on the specific quantity (or scale), term, risk and specific interest rate level of a transaction, so as to synthesize a representative interest rate quantity structure, term structure and risk structure for the whole financial market.
3. Interbank lending rate or short-term treasury bond interest rate will become the basic index of market interest rate.
Obviously, from the micro level, the market interest rate has more grades than the planned interest rate, and its structure is more complicated. The level of market interest rate can only be determined according to one or several interest rates that are generally accepted by financial transaction subjects with large market transactions. According to the experience of other countries, interbank interest rate or short-term treasury bond interest rate is the most representative market interest rate with the largest transaction volume and the most adequate information disclosure. They will become the basic standards for setting all other interest rates and the basic basis for measuring the rise and fall of market interest rates.
4. The government (or central bank) has the power to indirectly influence the interest rate of financial assets.
The marketization of interest rate is mainly to solve the problem of interest rate formation mechanism, that is, the formation of interest rate should be decided by the market rather than the central bank of the government or a country's monetary authorities. However, the marketization of interest rates does not exclude the regulatory role of the government, nor does it advocate giving up the financial supervision of the government. Just as the market economy does not exclude the macro-control of the government, there is still a certain degree of state control and intervention in the whole interest rate management. Under the condition of interest rate marketization, while relaxing the direct control over commercial banks' interest rates, the central bank generally strengthened the indirect control, and formed the capital interest rate through indirect means such as setting and adjusting rediscount interest rate, refinancing interest rate and open market operation, which indirectly reflected the policy intention of the monetary authorities. For example, through the open market operation, it affects the pattern of capital supply and demand, thus indirectly affecting the interest rate level; Or by adjusting the benchmark interest rate to affect the cost of capital of commercial banks, thus changing the market interest rate level. In the case of partial failure of financial regulation mechanism, commercial banks and other financial institutions can provide window guidance in an appropriate way and degree, but this means should not be used too much to avoid interfering with the operation order of the financial market itself.
Under the current situation in China, interest rate marketization can be dynamically regarded as a process of changing from the current single planned interest rate mechanism to the market interest rate mechanism under the macro-control and constraint of the state. Its ultimate goal is to realize the basic role of market mechanism in determining the price of credit funds, so as to form an interest rate management system with the benchmark interest rate as the center and the market interest rate as the main body, which has both the national macro-control function and the market self-regulation function, thus regulating the supply and demand of social credit funds and guiding the rational flow of funds. As far as the policy orientation of interest rate marketization is concerned, China's market-oriented interest rate system should be based on the central bank's refinancing and rediscount rates, national debt rates and interbank lending rates, with commercial bank deposit rates as the main body and other financial institutions' interest rates as the supplement, which is determined by the supply and demand of market funds.
(V) Marketization of interest rates and market interest rates
Formally speaking, interest rate marketization is to return the decision-making power of interest rate to the market from the compulsory control of policy implementation, but in essence, interest rate marketization actually regards interest rate as an important market price signal. The study of interest rate marketization is inseparable from the correct understanding of the basic concepts of market interest rate.
Market interest rate is a concept corresponding to the legal benchmark interest rate, which is an interest rate reached by both the supply and demand sides of funds. The market interest rate is a completely liberalized interest rate. Compared with the current bank interest rate, it has two obvious characteristics: objectivity and flexibility.
First of all, the market interest rate is an objective and true reflection of the relationship between supply and demand of market funds. It has the function of spontaneously regulating social and economic activities, and can constantly adjust and realize the optimal combination of social and economic structure. Secondly, the market interest rate changes sensitively with the change of market capital supply and demand, guiding the monetary capital as the object of market transaction to move according to the law of value and giving play to its function of selecting the best mechanism, thus realizing the efficiency and rationality of capital flow. The objectivity and flexibility of market interest rate provide a reliable frame of reference for the macro-control of the central bank, which can make the monetary policy of the central bank more effective and binding.
As a market-determined interest rate, market interest rate does not depend on the wishes of individual market participants, but on the relationship between supply and demand of funds in the whole market. Under the condition of interest rate marketization, if the market competition is sufficient, no single economic entity can become a unilateral setter of interest rates, but only a receiver of interest rates. Therefore, the market interest rate is a broad and authoritative interest rate. Under the condition of market economy, market interest rate is the benchmark that affects and determines personal interest rate. Interest rates in individual market transactions are not necessarily market interest rates, and individual interest rates that are divorced from market interest rates cannot be regarded as market interest rates.
At present, people tend to misunderstand the market interest rate, thinking that as long as the market interest rate is the market interest rate, they can set the market interest rate at will. This is obviously incorrect and does not conform to the actual situation. Individual interest rates that are not recognized and accepted by people and are not extensive and authoritative cannot be counted as market interest rates. Of course, different levels of lending activities have different market interest rates, and different levels of market interest rates are always reflected in different individual interest rates. For example, the market interest rate for a one-year loan is 9%, which is only a benchmark interest rate. When a bank lends a loan to an enterprise, it will set an interest rate of around 9% according to the credit rating of the enterprise and the risk of the loan. This individual interest rate is, of course, the market interest rate, and it is not limited by the market interest rate at all in individual transactions.
The current floating interest rate is not only an integral part of the official interest rate, but also an integral part of the market interest rate. This specifically means that on the basis of the benchmark interest rate determined by the central bank, the interest rate level can fluctuate within a certain proportion within the specified range, thus playing the role of interest rate in promoting enterprise management, saving capital use and improving economic efficiency.