Expert interpretation: Reform measures of central bank operating mechanisms should not be equated with interest rate cuts.

On October 19, Pan Gongsheng, Governor of the People's Bank of China, stated at the opening ceremony of the 2026 Financial Street Forum Annual Meeting that the interbank overnight repo rate has become the target rate for monetary policy regulation. Authoritative market experts said that the central bank's study of switching the main variety of open market operations is a measure of monetary policy framework reform, which is different from the usual talk of monetary policy rate cuts or hikes, with the focus still on continuously improving the operating mechanism of interest rate regulation. Wang Jian, Chief Analyst of the Financial Industry at the Guosen Securities Economic Research Institute, believes that as overnight operations become more regular, the policy rate may transition from 7-day to overnight, but this should not be equated with a rate cut. Guo Lei, Chief Economist of GF Securities, also mentioned that the central bank is continuously improving its monetary policy regulation framework, and a series of institutional designs are consistent and follow the idea of transitioning to a price-based framework, and the market should also avoid hyping the central bank's operational mechanism reform measures as rate cuts.