China makes surprise cut to key lending rate

SHANGHAI

China's central bank on Thursday unexpectedly cut a medium-term interest rate by the most in more than four years, marking the latest move by authorities to boost economic growth.

The world's second-largest economy has encountered severe headwinds in recent years, as a heavily indebted property sector, sluggish consumption and high youth unemployment weigh on confidence.

Beijing has introduced a host of measures in recent months in a bid to get it humming again, but a full rebound has so far proven elusive.

In a surprise move on Thursday, the People's Bank of China slashed the rate for its medium-term lending facility (MLF), the interest for one-year loans to financial institutions, to 2.3 percent, from 2.5 percent.

The central bank typically makes MLF announcements on a predetermined day in the middle of the month.

The last time the rate was cut was in August but the latest is the biggest since April 2020.

The country's economy has failed to fully recover from the impact of tough anti-pandemic measures, which were lifted in late 2022.

Chinese authorities have set an official growth target for this year of around 5 percent.

But that is considered ambitious by many economists and it expanded just 4.7 percent on-year in the second quarter, data showed last week.

Those figures came as Communist Party leaders, including President Xi Jinping, gathered for a meeting in Beijing, where they issued repeated calls to "eliminate risks" in the economy and boost domestic consumption.

However, they have so far offered few concrete measures to revive growth.