China's lenders cut the country's benchmark five-year loan prime rate for the first time since June, extending Beijing's efforts to revive the country's anemic property market.
The Chinese central bank kept its one-year loan prime rate — the peg for most household and corporate loans in China — unchanged at 3.45%. The benchmark five-year loan rate — the peg for most mortgages — was cut by 25 basis points to 3.95%, according to a statement Tuesday from the People's Bank of China.
The cut in the five-year rate in the monthly fix for February was larger than expectations for a reduction of between five to 15 basis points in a Reuters poll of economists. It was also the first since it was last trimmed in June by 10 basis points.
