SHANGHAI (Reuters) -China’s central bank lowered the cost of its medium-term loans to banks on Wednesday in a move consistent with broad policy easing measures announced a day earlier to shore up a flailing economy.
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said it cut the rate on 300 billion yuan ($42.66 billion) worth of one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) loans to some financial institutions to 2.00% from 2.30%.
The bid rates in Wednesday’s operation ranged from 1.90% to 2.30%, and the total balance of MLF loans now stands at 6.878 trillion yuan, the central bank said in an online statement.
A batch of 591 billion yuan worth of MLF loans expired this month.
On Tuesday, Beijing unveiled its biggest stimulus since the pandemic to pull the economy out of its deflationary funk and back towards the government’s growth target.
($1 = 7.0318 Chinese yuan)
(Reporting by Shanghai Newsroom; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Shri Navaratnam)
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