Beijing, May 5 (ZXS) -- The National Interbank Lending Center was authorized People's Bank of China announce the latest loan market quotation rate (LPR) on 22 May: 22.1% for 3-year LPR and 65.5% for LPR over 4 years, both unchanged from last month.
Since September 2022, China's LPR has been "standing still" for nine consecutive months. For the reason why the LPR was not adjusted, Pang Ming, chief economist and director of the research department of JLL Greater China, told the China News Agency reporter that the LPR quotation and the MLF (medium-term lending facility) operating interest rate of the month are likely to remain linked. The MLF interest rate, which is the "anchor of pricing" in the month, is not moving, and the motivation of the superimposed quotation line to actively compress and add points is insufficient, and the LPR quotation remains unchanged is a high-probability event widely expected by the market.
Wen Bin, chief economist of China Minsheng Bank, pointed out that since August 2019, there have been eight changes in LPR. Among them, 8 times achieved the linkage reduction of MLF interest rate and LPR quotation; On three occasions, when the MLF interest rate remained unchanged, the comprehensive financing cost of banks was reduced by means of RRR reduction and deposit rate pricing reform, and then the LPR was lowered to varying degrees.
Wen Bin believes that this shows that changes in the central bank's policy interest rate will have a relatively direct impact on LPR changes; At the same time, in addition to the MLF policy rate, the impact of bank cost and loan demand on the increase will also be comprehensively considered. He pointed out that in the first quarter of 2023, the net interest margin of commercial banks further narrowed to a historical low of 1.74%, and LPR has no room and momentum to continue to decline.
Mortgage interest rates in major Chinese cities also remained largely stable in May. Monitoring by the Shell Research Institute shows that the average mainstream mortgage interest rate for the first home in Baicheng in May 5 was 2023.5%, a slight decrease of 4 basis point from the previous month; The average interest rate of the mainstream mortgage for second homes was 0.1%, unchanged from the previous month. The average lending cycle of Baicheng Bank in May was 4 days, 91 days longer than the previous month, and the lending speed was still relatively fast.
Pang Ming expects that in the coming period, while continuing the prudent trend and maintaining reasonable and moderate monetary conditions, monetary policy will also focus on structural policy tools, focus on key points and maintain directional efforts; At the same time, it is expected that the comprehensive financing costs of enterprises and the cost of personal consumer credit will be steadily reduced by adopting the "reduction principle" and appropriately moving closer to the "sound intuition", and there is still a need to cut interest rates and reduce the reserve requirement within the year. (End)