Loan prime rates remain unchanged

China's one-year loan prime rate, a market-based benchmark lending rate, came in at 3.1 percent on Friday, unchanged from the previous month. The over-five-year LPR, on which many lenders base their mortgage rates, also remained unchanged from the previous reading of 3.6 percent, according to the National Interbank Funding Center. Despite remaining flat on Friday, the LPR, released once a month, has dropped three times this year, with the one-year rate down by 35 basis points in total and the five-year rate down by 60 basis points.

Central bank conducts reverse repos

China's central bank conducted 101.6 billion yuan ($14.1 billion) of seven-day reverse repos at an interest rate of 1.5 percent on Friday. The move aims to keep liquidity adequate at a reasonable level in the banking system, the central bank said. A reverse repo is a process in which the central bank purchases securities from commercial banks through bidding, with an agreement to sell them back in the future.

Yuan strengthens against greenback

The central parity rate of the Chinese currency renminbi, or the yuan, strengthened 10 pips to 7.1901 against the US dollar on Friday, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System. In China's spot foreign exchange market, the yuan is allowed to rise or fall by 2 percent from the central parity rate each trading day. The central parity rate of the yuan against the dollar is based on a weighted average of prices offered by market makers before the opening of the interbank market each business day.

Xinhua - China Daily