Economic calendar in Asia Monday, January 20, 2025 – PBOC Loan Prime Rate (LPR) day

The People’s Bank of China is the focus today, with LPR settings. These are not as critical as they once were. In June 2024, Governor Pan Gongsheng announced a strategic shift, designating the 7-day reverse repurchase (repo) rate as the primary short-term policy rate.

However, most new and outstanding loans in China are based on the one-year LPR, while the five-year rate influences the pricing of mortgages. The one-year LPR and the over-five-year LPR are currently at 3.10% and 3.60%, respectively.

Recent moves:

• July 22, 2024: The one-year LPR was reduced by 10 basis points to 3.35%, and the over-five-year LPR was lowered by 10 basis points to 3.85%.

• In August and September 2024, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) maintained the Loan Prime Rates (LPR) at the levels set in July.

• October 21, 2024: The one-year LPR was further reduced by 25 basis points to 3.10%, and the over-five-year LPR was decreased by 25 basis points to 3.60%.

• November 20, 2024: Both the one-year LPR and the over-five-year LPR were maintained at 3.10% and 3.60%, respectively.

• December 20, 2024: The PBOC kept both the one-year LPR and the over-five-year LPR unchanged.

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.