China's one-year loan prime rate continues to fall

BEIJING - China's one-year loan prime rate (LPR) came in at 4.2 percent on Friday, down from 4.25 percent a month earlier, according to the National Interbank Funding Center.

The above-five-year LPR stood at 4.85 percent, unchanged from the previous reading.

China's central bank announced in August a plan to reform the LPR mechanism to better reflect market changes in its latest move to guide borrowing costs lower to support the real economy.

Under the revamped mechanism, the LPRs, released on the 20th day of every month, are based on rates of the central bank's open market operations, especially the medium-term lending facility rates.

The first new one-year LPR, released on Aug 20, stood at 4.25 percent, 10 basis points lower than the central bank benchmark lending rate, while the first new above-five-year LPR was slightly lower than the 4.9-percent central bank benchmark rate.