China's central bank renews currency swap deals with European counterparts

BEIJING, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- The People's Bank of China (PBOC), China's central bank, has renewed bilateral currency swap agreements with the European Central Bank (ECB), the Swiss National Bank (SNB), and the National Bank of Hungary (MNB), respectively.

The size of the PBOC-ECB swap is 350 billion yuan (nearly 50 billion U.S. dollars), or 45 billion euros, and is valid for three years, according to a PBOC statement. The deal with the SNB is 150 billion yuan, or 17 billion Swiss francs, for five years, and the PBOC-MNB agreement is also valid for five years with a swap size of 40 billion yuan, equivalent to 1.9 trillion Hungarian forints.

The renewal of the swap arrangements will further deepen monetary and financial cooperation, facilitate bilateral trade and investment between China and the relevant economies, and support the stability of financial markets, the statement said.