Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI. Coming up on today’s program China’s central bank surprises markets by leaving medium-term rate unchanged, but adds liquidity; Chinese premier arrives in Switzerland for Davos forum. Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours  The People’s Bank of China on Monday added 995 billion yuan ($138.84 billion) worth of one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) loans to some financial institutions, but surprised markets by leaving the interest rate unchanged when rolling over maturing medium-term policy loans. A total of 995 billion yuan was injected into the market via the MLF, which will mature in one year at an interest rate of 2.5 percent, unchanged compared to the previous operation, according to a statement on the central bank’s website on Monday. With 779 billion yuan worth of MLF loans set to expire this month, the operation resulted a net 216 billion yuan fresh fund injection into the banking system. The central bank also injected 89 billion yuan through seven-day reverse repos while keeping borrowing cost unchanged at 1.8 percent, it said in an online statement. The MLF interest rate has not fallen this month, probably because the policymakers are still waiting to see the effect of the policy tools previously issued to boost the economy, noted Golden Credit Rating International. The policy tools included 350 billion yuan pledged supplementary lending added last month and 1 trillion yuan of national debt issued in the fourth quarter of last year. The Chinese economy has been continuing its recovery, with financial data staying stable last month, while loan granting jumped reasonably last year, indicating the market interest rates are within a fair range, said Zhou Maohua, a macro analyst at China Everbright Bank's financial market department. The PBOC hiked the net liquidity injection via the MLF to guide financial institutions to go on increasing support to the real economy, he added. Chinese Premier Li Qiang arrived in Zurich, Switzerland on Sunday, and is expected to deliver a special address on Tuesday at the opening of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, which will be held from Monday to Friday. Themed "Rebuilding Trust”, the Davos forum will be attended by more than 2,800 delegates from businesses, governments, international organizations and civil society from around the world, including more than 60 heads of state and government, to discuss the world's most pressing issues and set priorities for the year ahead.   China's foreign trade grew 0.2 percent year-on-year to 41.76 trillion yuan ($5.87 trillion) in 2023, with December data gearing up expansion at a rate of 2.8 percent in yuan-denominated terms, customs data showed on Friday. Exports grew 0.6 percent year-on-year to 23.77 trillion yuan last year, while imports edged down 0.3 percent year-on-year to 17.99 trillion yuan. In particular, total imports and exports for December alone came in at 3.81 trillion yuan, hitting a record high on a monthly basis. China's consumer prices dropped for the third consecutive month in December. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Friday that the country's CPI dropped by 0.3 percent year-on-year in December after a 0.5 percent drop in November. For the full year of 2023, the CPI rose by 0.2 percent year-on-year. China's producer price index, which gauges factory-gate prices, dropped by 2.7 percent year-on-year in December, following a 3 percent fall in November, the NBS said. For the entire year, China's PPI dipped 3 percent. Greater Bay Area, Greater future Guangzhou, the capital city of south China's Guangdong Province, is expected to see its GPD exceed 3 trillion yuan in 2023, local authorities said Monday. Both the total retail sales of consumer goods and total value of its imports and exports have exceeded 1 trillion yuan for the third consecutive year. Meanwhile, fixed asset investment surpassed 860 billion yuan. The added v