China banks hold lending rates

Chinese banks held benchmark lending rates after the country’s central bank last week to keep monetary policy unchanged.

The one-year loan prime rate (LPR) was held at 3.45%, in line with forecasts. The five-year rate, used to set mortgage pricing, remained at 3.95%, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said on Wednesday.

Loan rates are based on those offered by 20 banks to their best customers and quoted as a spread over the central bank’s one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF), which was left unchanged again last week.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com