China likely to lower lending rates

SHANGHAI:

Benchmark lending rates for China’s commercial banks are likely to be lowered at a monthly fixing on Wednesday, a Reuters survey showed, as Beijing cautiously eases monetary conditions to aid an economy hit by coronavirus lockdowns in several cities. The loan prime rate (LPR), which banks normally charges their best clients, is set on the 20th of each month, when 18 designated commercial banks submit their proposed rates to the People’s Bank of China. A vast majority of the 28 traders and analysts surveyed in a snap Reuters poll on Tuesday expect a reduction this month. Among them, 11, or 39% of all respondents, predicted a marginal cut of 5 basis points (bps) to both the one-year loan prime rate (LPR) and the five-year rate on Wednesday. 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 20^th, 2022.

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