China’s central bank left its benchmark lending rate unchanged on Tuesday, in line with market expectations that Beijing would end monetary easing to avoid downward pressure on the currency.
The People’s Bank of China has kept the one-year prime rate at 3.65% and the five-year rate at 4.30%, it said in a statement on its website.
The central bank’s holdings on LPR were in line with market expectations as the key policy rate for the medium-term lending facility remained unchanged last week.
The PBOC determines the benchmark LPR using the interest rates offered by 18 commercial banks to their best customers—themselves based on the rates offered by the medium-term lending institution.
For the first time since 2015, China’s five biggest state-owned banks cut private deposit fees last week as the country tries to revive an economy hit hard by Covid-19 policies.
The central bank surprised the market by cutting the one- and five-year LPR rates in August.