BANGKOK (AP) — China’s central bank cut key interest rates in a surprise move Monday aimed at injecting new life into its ailing property sector, while the ruling Communist Party released details of a top-level meeting focused on strategies for revving up the slowing economy.
The People’s Bank of China cut the five-year loan prime rate, which is a benchmark for mortgages, by 10 basis points to 3.85% from 3.95%. The one-year loan prime rate, or LPR, was reduced to 3.35% from 3.45%.
The expanded summary of the party’s plenum last week included ambitious targets for accomplishing leader Xi Jinping’s goal of making China a “high-standard socialist market economy in all respects” by 2035.
The lengthy document, 50 pages in English, promises to beef up social welfare such as pensions, improve the tax system and protect private property rights. Rural migrants should have the same access to public services as long-term city dwellers, it…