China has said it will cut its benchmark interest rate and reduce the amount of money banks need to hold as reserves, offering support for the economy in the face of a trade war with the US.
China will lower banks’ reserve requirement ratio by 0.5 percentage points and cut several key interest rates to release Rmb1tn ($138bn) of long-term liquidity into the banking system, said Pan Gongsheng, governor of the People’s Bank of China.
Pan, speaking at a news conference on Wednesday alongside officials from two other financial regulatory agencies, said the central bank would cut the benchmark seven-day repo rate by 0.1 percentage points to 1.4 per cent and reduce deposit and other interest rates for refinancing loans.