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PBC base interest rate - Chinese central bank’s interest rate
Charts - historic PBC interest rates
Graph Chinese interest rate PBC - interest rates last year |
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Graph Chinese interest rate PBC - long-term graph |
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PBC - The People’s Bank of China
The People’s Bank of China (PBC or PBOC) is the central bank of the People’s Republic of China. There is no financial institution in the world which has more financial assets / resources than the People’s Bank of China. Under the guidance of the State Council the PBC deals with:
- drafting and implementing monetary policy. The most important aim of this is to maintain financial stability and the value of the currency in order to stimulate economic growth;
- to prevent or restrict financial risks;
- to safeguard financial stability.
Other important tasks for the Central Bank of China are:
- issuing and administering the circulation of the Renminbi, the official currency of the People’s Republic of China. The name means “people’s currency". The unit of the renminbi is the yuan;
- regulating the interbank lending market and the interbank bond market;
- managing the official foreign currency and gold reserves;
- recording foreign exchange transactions and regulating the interbank trade in foreign currencies;
- managing the State’s "treasury";
- maintaining the normal functioning of payment traffic;
- initiating and organising the financial sector’s anti-moneylaundering policy;
- calculating the financial statistics and producing research, analyses and forecasts;
- participating in international financial activities on behalf of the central bank.
Central bank base interest rate
When reference is made to the Chinese interest rate this often refers to the base interest rate. The central bank base interest rate or base rate is PBC’s basic interest rate. The Chinese central bank has complete autonomy with regard to the use of monetary instruments. This means - amongst other things - that the bank sets the interest rates for commercial banks. The bank thereby has a lot of influence over the rates which need to be paid in the market for loans and mortgages and the interest paid on savings.
Whereas interest rates in the rest of the world are always divisible by 25, in China the interest rate set by the central bank is always divisible by 9. The reason why China uses a different system is that the financial year in China has 360 days, which means that this method makes it easier to calculate daily and monthly interest rates. The number 9 is also very important in Chinese culture. The number stands for longevity, abundance and masculinity.
This page shows the current and historic values of the central bank base interest rate of the Chinese central bank.
For a summary of the current interest rates of a large number of central banks please click here.
Tables - current and historic Chinese central bank interest rates
PBC latest interest rate changes
| july 06 2011 |
6.560 % |
| april 06 2011 |
6.310 % |
| february 08 2011 |
6.060 % |
| december 25 2010 |
5.810 % |
| october 19 2010 |
5.560 % |
| december 22 2008 |
5.310 % |
| november 27 2008 |
5.580 % |
| october 30 2008 |
6.660 % |
| october 09 2008 |
6.930 % |
| september 15 2008 |
7.200 % |
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Summary of other central banks’ interest rates
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