According to People's Daily Online, citing the People's Bank of China, the central bank authorised the National Interbank Funding Center on 20 July 2026 to keep the Loan Prime Rate (LPR) unchanged for both maturities. The one-year LPR was set at 3,0% and the five-year-plus LPR, the main reference for mortgage pricing, at 3,5%. The report notes that the 7-day reverse repo rate, the PBoC's main policy rate, has stayed unchanged for 14 consecutive months since it was last cut in May 2025, when both LPR tenors were lowered by 10 basis points.
Wang Qing, chief macro analyst at Oriental Jincheng, was cited in the report as saying that the stable LPR quotations since the start of the year reflect a strong start to the macro economy in the first quarter, continued high export growth, and accelerating development in high-technology manufacturing, which together indicate that macro policy is maintaining a firm stance. He added that monetary policy is currently in an observation period, which he described as the fundamental reason behind the unchanged policy rate and LPR in July.
Wang also pointed to pressure on bank margins as a factor limiting any move to lower the LPR spread. He said that since July, market rates such as DR001 have risen close to the policy rate, and yields on one-year AAA-rated commercial bank interbank certificates of deposit have also increased, indicating that banks' wholesale funding costs have risen recently. According to the report, commercial banks' net interest margin stood at 1,40% at the end of the first quarter of 2026, down 0,02 percentage points from the end of the previous year and a fresh historic low, which Wang said leaves quoting banks with little incentive to actively lower their LPR add-on.
The report confirms that the last change to either LPR tenor occurred in May 2025, when both the one-year and five-year-plus rates were cut by 10 basis points, and that the rates published on 20 July 2026 remain valid until the next monthly LPR announcement.