People's Bank of China Vice Governor Liu

  • says China will not scrap benchmark lending rate for the time being
  • china still needs time to observe effects of LPR reform
  • future interest rate policy focus will be on the LPR, benchmark rates may not be changed in near term
  • there is room for cuts in both the reserve requirement ratio and lending rate
  • interest rate differential between US and China poses no pressure on the yuan
  • Says urgency for interest rate reform due to China - US trade war, industrial transformation, rate cuts from global central banks

More:

  • China's economy is not experiencing deflation, market rates at a basically reasonable level
  • Says overall lending costs to small and medium-sized firms has dropped more than 1 pct point this year
  • There is some room for RRR cut in future, but that room is not as big as people thought
  • China will keep individual mortgage lending basically stable, issue a plan on such lending