BEIJING / RankWire.AI / – China left its benchmark lending rates unchanged in September, extending a period of stable borrowing costs. The one-year loan prime rate remained at 3.0%, while the over-five-year rate stayed at 3.5%. Banks commonly use the longer-term benchmark when pricing mortgages. The September fixing kept both rates at the same levels seen in August. The figures remain central to loan pricing across China’s banking system.
China holds the one-year LPR at 3.0% while the mortgage-linked benchmark stays at 3.5%. (AI-generated image)
The People’s Bank of China oversees the framework used to determine the loan prime rate. The National Interbank Funding Center publishes the monthly fixing. The one-year LPR serves as a reference for many business and household loans. The over-five-year LPR has a direct role in mortgage pricing and other long-term borrowing. September’s decision left the lending benchmarks unchanged across both major maturities.
The steady LPR readings come alongside fresh data on inflation, credit and the property market. China’s consumer price index rose 0.8% in August from a year earlier. Prices also increased 0.4% from July. Those figures provide the latest measure of consumer inflation. The lending rate decision also follows new housing and financing data covering activity through the first eight months of 2026.
Mortgage benchmark stays at 3.5%
Housing data continued to show different trends across China’s largest cities in August. New home prices in first-tier cities rose 0.1% from July. Shanghai recorded a 0.4% monthly increase. Guangzhou prices gained 0.1%, while Shenzhen advanced 0.2%. Beijing recorded a 0.2% decline during the month. The figures show uneven price movements across the country’s biggest property markets.
Property investment totaled 4.798 trillion yuan from January through August, down 19.9% from a year earlier. Residential investment fell 19.7% to 3.702 trillion yuan. Sales of newly built commercial properties reached 4.747 trillion yuan, a decline of 13.0%. The property market remains closely linked to the over-five-year LPR because lenders use that rate when setting many mortgage terms.
Credit and property indicators accompany September rate decision
Newly built commercial property sales covered 498.8 million square meters in the first eight months of 2026. That marked a 12.1% annual decline. Residential sales area fell 13.0%, while residential sales value declined 13.1%. Individual mortgage loans received by property developers totaled 684.6 billion yuan. That amount was 22.4% lower than a year earlier. The figures provide further context for housing-related borrowing conditions.
China’s outstanding social financing reached 464.8 trillion yuan at the end of August, up 7.2% from a year earlier. Renminbi loans to the real economy stood at 278.63 trillion yuan, an increase of 5.0%. Government bonds within total social financing reached 103.69 trillion yuan, up 13.5%. Against that backdrop, the People’s Bank of China maintained the one-year LPR at 3.0% and the over-five-year rate at 3.5%.