Chinese banks kept their benchmark lending rates unchanged for a sixth consecutive month after the central bank maintained its policy stance and amid signs of a recovery in corporate loan demand, reports Bloomberg.
The one-year loan prime rate was held at 3.65%, the People’s Bank of China said Monday, in line with the forecasts from all 13 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The five-year rate, a reference for mortgages, was also kept at 4.3%, as expected.
The decision came after the central bank left its one-year policy rate unchanged last week while adding more cash into the interbank market to ease a liquidity shortage. The PBOC is assessing the economy’s need for further stimulus amid a faster-than-expected recovery following the scrapping of COVID restrictions.