Economic calendar in Asia Monday, 20 May 2024 – People’s Bank of China rate setting day

Last Wednesday the People’s Bank of China left the rate on its Medium-term Lending Facility (MLF) unchanged at 2.5%.

The unchanged rate for the MLF strongly suggests the one- and five-year LPRs will remain at the same rates also:

• 3.45% and 3.95% respectively

The MLF rate setting is usually (not always) a reliable guide that LPR rates will remain unchanged. That didn’t happen in February. The MLF was unchanged in February but we got a big cut to the 5-year LPR.

• PBOC Rate CUT ___ (LPR): 1-year 3.45% (prior 3.45%) 5-year 3.95% (prior 4.20%)
• The 1 year rate was last changed in August 2023: PBOC Loan Prime Rates (LPR) CUT: 1-year 3.45% (prior 3.55%) & 5-year 4.2% (prior 4.20%)

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The PBoC did cut last week:

• PBOC to lower interest rates on housing fund loans by 25 bps

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The PBOC’s Loan Prime Rate (LPR):

• Its an interest rate benchmark used in China, set by the People’s Bank of China each month.
• The LPR serves as a reference rate for banks when they determine the interest rates for (primarily new) loans issued to their customers.
• Most new and outstanding loans in China are based on the one-year LPR, while the five-year rate influences the pricing of mortgages.
• Its calculated based on the interest rates that a panel of 18 selected commercial banks in China submit daily to the PBOC.
  • The panel consists of both domestic and foreign banks, with different weights assigned to each bank’s contributions based on their size and importance in the Chinese financial system.
  • The LPR is based on the average rates submitted by these panel banks, with the highest and lowest rates excluded to reduce volatility and manipulation. The remaining rates are then ranked, and the median rate becomes the LPR.

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Otherwise the data calendar is lower-tier only:

• This snapshot from the ForexLive economic data calendar, access it here.
• The times in the left-most column are GMT.
• The numbers in the right-most column are the ‘prior’ (previous month/quarter as the case may be) result. The number in the column next to that, where there is a number, is the consensus median expected.

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.