China unveils fresh stimulus to boost economy

China’s central bank on Tuesday unveiled fresh measures to boost the struggling economy, cutting the amount of cash banks must hold in reserve and lowering a key interest rate.
China will “reduce the reserve requirement ratio and the policy interest rate, and drive the market benchmark interest rate downward”, Pan Gongsheng told a news conference in Beijing.
“The reserve requirement ratio will be cut by 0.5 percentage points in the near future to provide long-term liquidity to the financial market of about 1 trillion yuan,” he said.
Beijing would also “lower the interest rates of existing mortgage loans and unify the down payment ratios for mortgage loans”, he added.
It will “guide commercial banks to lower the interest rates of existing mortgage loans to the vicinity of the interest rates of newly issued loans”.
China’s economy, the world’s second-largest, has yet to achieve a highly anticipated post-pandemic recovery as it is battered by a prolonged property sector debt crisis, continued deflationary pressure and high unemployment.