The announcement by the People's Bank of China that it has suspended treasury bond purchases due to the asset's scarcity highlights the limitations of its resources as it confronts an increasingly challenging economic environment.

The bank halted its government bond purchases Friday in an attempt to slow a one-way bonds trade that's put unwanted downward pressure on the yuan, analysts say.

Aging populations, as Japan taught us, are inherently deflationary. Folks in their 70s don’t spend the way 20-somethings do. With the unemployment rate for Chinese between 16 and 24 stuck above 17% —or higher given the vagaries of Beijing’s data—what good will subsidies and rebates do?

China's central bank said on Friday it has suspended treasury bond purchases, triggering a jump in yields and spurring speculation that the move was aimed at defending a falling currency.

The unexpected action is intended to tamp down a potential bubble in the bond market fueled by investors shunning riskier assets like stocks and real estate.

The People's Bank of China (PBC) announced on Friday that it has decided to temporarily suspend treasury bond purchases in the open market, starting from this month. The central bank said the decision was made as demand exceeded supply on the government bond market recently,

China’s central bank expanded its gold reserves for a second month in December, signaling renewed appetite after temporarily pausing purchases last year as prices soared.

China's central bank suspended treasury bond purchases on Friday, briefly lifting yields and spurring speculation it is stepping up defence of the yuan currency which has been sliding since the election of Donald Trump as U.