The People’s Bank of China on Thursday lowered the rates charged by a short-term lending facility that provides liquidity to commercial lenders, the latest in a long stretch of gradual monetary policy easing that has thus far failed to give banks an incentive to lend more to businesses and consumers, The Wall Street Journal reported. The central bank said on its official Weibo microblog that starting Friday it would cut the Standing Lending Facility’s overnight lending rate to banks from 4.5% to 2.75%, and would lower the seven-day bank-loan rate to from 5.5% to 3.25%. The bank cut both benchmark rates and reserve requirements for banks most recently in October.