Interest rates cut for fifth time in three months

The central bank on Monday announced it had cut interest rates for the fifth time in just over three months, the Wall Street Journal reported. The benchmark one-year lending rate was cut by 0.27 percentage point to 5.31% and the deposit rate was lowered by 0.27 percentage point to 2.25%. Banks’ required reserve ratios – the proportion of total assets they must hold in reserve and therefore not lend out – was cut by 0.50 percentage point to 15.5%. The rate cuts were widely expected, although the amounts were smaller than many analysts had expected. "The market may be disappointed by the small scale of China rate cuts," said Stephen Green, chief economist at Standard Chartered Bank. He observed that Chinese officials "want to save some ammunition for next year."