Zhou Xiaochuan at the press conference.

The People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, held a press conference Monday morning in Beijing during the fifth session of the 11th National People's Congress (NPC). Zhou Xiaochuan, the governor of the bank, answered questions from Chinese and foreign press.

Here are the highlights of the press conference:

? Central bank orders lending to first-home buyers

Commercial banks?are urged to?put in place a differentiated credit policy to guarantee housing loans to qualified first-home buyers.

? Fiscal revenue growth decelerates as economy slows

China's national fiscal revenue rose 13.1 percent year-on-year to 2.09 trillion yuan (330.27 billion U.S. dollars) in the first two months as the economy slows

? No plan to issue larger denomination banknotes

The central bank is not planning to issue larger denomination banknotes in the short term. The use of larger denomination banknotes will cause more changes in daily trading, and they will bring larger losses to consumers if they receive fake ones.

? Lowered RRR not to boost stock, property market

Cuts on reserve requirement ratio (RRR) were not to boost capital market confidence or improve property market liquidity.

 

• China to continue diversifying holdings of foreign bonds

China will continue to implement the principle of diversifying its investment in foreign bonds. Its holdings of eurozone bonds did not register losses as a portfolio.

 

• Slow world recovery and Europe form uncertainty

A?slow world recovery process and the unstable economic and financial situation in Europe will be the biggest uncertainty for China's economy this year.

 

? Yuan more flexible, trade deficit welcomed

The supply and demand relations in the market are playing an increasing role in deciding the exchange rate of the Chinese currency.