-
(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
BEIJING, June 7 (Xinhua) -- China announced Thursday its first cut in benchmark interest rates in more than three years after slower-than-expected growth in the world's second-largest economy raised concerns of a hard landing.
The People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, said Thursday it would cut the benchmark interest rate for deposits and loans by 25 basis points beginning Friday.
After the cut, the one-year deposit interest rate will fall to 3.25 percent while the loan interest rate will be lowered to 6.31 percent.
It marks the first time for China to cut the benchmark rates since December 2008, after which it has raised the rates five times to drain liquidity1.
"Given China's current economic situation and its policy shift towards maintaining growth, the cut is well within expectations," said Zhang Liqun, researcher from the Development Research Center of the State Council, or China's cabinet.
The latest move came as China's GDP growth slowed to a nearly three-year low of 8.1 percent in the first quarter and key economic indicators3 for April continued to suggest downward risks, prompting the government to shift focus from inflation control to securing growth.
China's inflation rate slowed to 3.4 percent in April from 3.6 percent in March and was widely expected to ease further in May due to falling food prices and the base effect.
In a State Council meeting last month, Premier4 Wen Jiabao said the government should "place maintaining growth in a more important position and carry out preemptive policy adjustments and fine-tuning more forcefully according to the changing situation."
It also came as new yuan-denominated loans in April ran at the lowest level this year and manufacturing activities continued to stagnate5 in May.
Guo Tianyong, a professor from the Central University of Finance and Economics, said the rate reduction will play a significant role in stabilizing6 growth as it will lower operation costs for businesses and stimulate7 credit demands.
Dragged down by sluggish8 demand, China's new yuan-denominated loans in April totaled 681.8 billion yuan (107.9 billion U.S. dollars), far below market estimates of around 800 billion yuan and was also the lowest this year.
Tang Yunfei, chief macroeconomic analyst9 at Founder10 Securities, saw the cut as a signal of a new round of monetary11 loosening and he expected an acceleration12 in credit supply for the latter half of the year.
"Credit supply for the whole year will exceed 8.5 trillion yuan," he predicted.
With major global economies mired13 in recessions, Gao Shuguang, an economist14 with the Development Research Center under the State Council, said China's gradually loosening policy, including three cuts in bank reserve requirement ratio (RRR) so far, is in line with international practices.
"Stabilizing growth has become the focus for many countries, and our latest move was in line with the international trend," he said.
Lifted by the move, U.S. stocks surged at opening time Thursday, with the Dow Jones industrial average up 1.3 percent to 12,543.
Accompanying the reduction in borrowing costs that will have an immediate15 impact in stimulating16 the economy, the real surprise on Thursday was the central bank's decision to allow banks more freedom in setting the deposits and interest rates, a significant step towards the liberalization of the interest rates, analysts17 said.
The PBOC said the upper limit of the floating band of deposit rates will be adjusted to 1.1 times the benchmark while banks are allowed to offer a 20 percent discount to borrowers.
China's commercial banks until now were generally not allowed to offer deposits rates higher than the set benchmark and the downward float for loan profits were controlled within 90 percent of the benchmark.
"The move is of great significance as it means a big step forward in the reforms of the interest rate mechanism," said Xia Bin2, counselor18 of the State Council and former member of the monetary policy committee of the People's Bank of China.
The somewhat sudden adjustment echoed promises made by PBOC earlier this year to push forward market-oriented interest rates.
Ba said the new policy will test banks' price-setting and innovation abilities, which allowed competitive banks to create diversified19 products to attract loans.
Meanwhile, the adjusted floating band will benefit businesses with lower financing costs, stimulate credit demand, and foster an amiable20 environment for the country to spur growth through fiscal21 means.
Although the cuts to the reserve requirement ratio and interest rates, which analysts believe will happen again times this year, are aimed at stimulating credit supply and demand, respectively, the realization22 of a balance between the two will need additional efforts from the government, including the assistance of fiscal policies, analysts said.
"Especially in terms of economic restructuring and easing business burdens, fiscal policies have a larger role to play," said Cai Yanfei, an analyst with Industrial Securities.
点击收听单词发音
1 liquidity | |
n.流动性,偿债能力,流动资产 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2 bin | |
n.箱柜;vt.放入箱内;[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3 indicators | |
(仪器上显示温度、压力、耗油量等的)指针( indicator的名词复数 ); 指示物; (车辆上的)转弯指示灯; 指示信号 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4 premier | |
adj.首要的;n.总理,首相 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5 stagnate | |
v.停止 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6 stabilizing | |
n.稳定化处理[退火]v.(使)稳定, (使)稳固( stabilize的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7 stimulate | |
vt.刺激,使兴奋;激励,使…振奋 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8 sluggish | |
adj.懒惰的,迟钝的,无精打采的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9 analyst | |
n.分析家,化验员;心理分析学家 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10 Founder | |
n.创始者,缔造者 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
11 monetary | |
adj.货币的,钱的;通货的;金融的;财政的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
12 acceleration | |
n.加速,加速度 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
13 mired | |
abbr.microreciprocal degree 迈尔德(色温单位)v.深陷( mire的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
14 economist | |
n.经济学家,经济专家,节俭的人 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
15 immediate | |
adj.立即的;直接的,最接近的;紧靠的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
16 stimulating | |
adj.有启发性的,能激发人思考的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
17 analysts | |
分析家,化验员( analyst的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
18 counselor | |
n.顾问,法律顾问 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
19 diversified | |
adj.多样化的,多种经营的v.使多样化,多样化( diversify的过去式和过去分词 );进入新的商业领域 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
20 amiable | |
adj.和蔼可亲的,友善的,亲切的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
21 fiscal | |
adj.财政的,会计的,国库的,国库岁入的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
22 realization | |
n.实现;认识到,深刻了解 | |
参考例句: |
|
|