China
The People's Bank of China announced on 3 November that it will raise the foreign-exchange deposit reserve requirement ratio for financial institutions by two percentage points, from 4 per cent to 6 per cent, with effect from 15 November. The central bank said the measure was intended to strengthen the management of foreign-exchange liquidity. It applies to foreign-currency deposits held by financial institutions and is not a change to the renminbi reserve requirement or a policy interest rate. The higher ratio requires institutions to retain a larger share of their foreign-exchange deposits as reserves, leaving a smaller share available for lending, trading or other asset allocation.
Reuters estimated, using official Chinese foreign-exchange deposit data, that the change could withdraw about US$24 billion of foreign-exchange liquidity from the financial system. That figure is a media estimate, not an amount announced by the People's Bank of China. The central bank's notice stated a liquidity-management purpose and did not set an exchange-rate target.
Australia
The Reserve Bank of Australia's Monetary Policy Board decided on 3 November to lift the cash rate target by 25 basis points to 4.85 per cent, effective from 4 November. The decision was carried by six votes to three. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that this was the fifth cash-rate increase of 2026 and took the rate to its highest level since 2008. The cash rate target is the policy benchmark for the overnight money market; the decision immediately changes the short-term funding price within the central-bank system and influences the pricing of loans and deposits.
The RBA said inflation remained too high and broad-based, with recent fuel-price increases and domestic cost pressures adding to inflation. In its November forecasts, the central bank said inflation was not expected to return to the top of the 2–3 per cent target range until late 2027 or to the midpoint of that range until mid-2028; it also expected unemployment to rise. These paths are forecasts published by the RBA with the decision, not outcomes that have already occurred.
United States
On 2 November, US District Judge Tanya Chutkan of the District of Columbia granted a preliminary injunction in League of Women Voters v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security and stayed the relevant agency action under section 705 of the Administrative Procedure Act. The order prevents the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice from further disclosing, transmitting or releasing data purporting to list potential or actual noncitizen voters to state or local officials responsible for voter registration, issuing or processing ballots, verifying signatures, or tabulating or certifying votes. It does not prevent a state from asking the federal government to verify a particular person's citizenship through the SAVE system.
At this preliminary stage, the court found that the plaintiffs had shown a likelihood of success on parts of their challenge to the data-transmission policy and that unreliable data could expose eligible voters to the risk that their ballots would be segregated or not counted. The Justice Department argued in the litigation that its letters to California and Washington were part of enforcing federal law against noncitizen voting and did not constitute a distinct policy open to judicial review. The injunction preserves rights and the status quo while the case proceeds; it is not a final determination of every factual or legal dispute.
Editorial framework: This briefing uses Sustenesis as an editorial framework for selecting facts, organising relationships and structuring information, with attention to differences and constraints in rules, responsibilities, resources, risks and social relations. Sustenesis functions here as a method of organisation rather than a position or commentary; the body remains limited to verifiable facts.
Sources
People's Bank of China, republished by Xinhua, 中国人民银行决定上调金融机构外汇存款准备金率
https://app.xinhuanet.com/news/article.html?articleId=2026110380f848e7f7e547b2a7b72ef4c64c3262
Reuters, China to raise FX reserve requirement to slow yuan's rally
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/china-raise-forex-deposit-reserve-ratio-6-starting-november-15-2026-11-03/
Reserve Bank of Australia, Statement by the Monetary Policy Board: Monetary Policy Decision
https://www.rba.gov.au/media-releases/2026/mr-26-30.html
Reserve Bank of Australia, In Brief: Statement on Monetary Policy – November 2026
https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/smp/2026/nov/
Australian Broadcasting Corporation, RBA lifts interest rates to highest level in 18 years to try to dampen inflation
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-11-03/rba-lifts-interest-rates-november-2026-highest-rate-in-18-years/107340050
United States District Court for the District of Columbia, League of Women Voters v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Memorandum Opinion, 2 November 2026
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.297656/gov.uscourts.dcd.297656.31.0.pdf
Reuters, Judge blocks Trump administration from pressuring states over noncitizen voting
https://www.reuters.com/world/judge-blocks-trump-administration-pressuring-states-over-noncitizen-voting-2026-11-03/
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