China Tells

China’s base interest rate was lowered in December 2008 from 5.58% to 5.31% and has been kept at this level till today. The agressive pace of rate cutting from People’s Bank of China (China’s central bank) is slightly ahead of that of ECB and FED. In addition, the magnitude is much wider: The rate spread between PBOC and FED, for example, has widened from 1.14% in March 07 to 5.26% as of today. With Fed’s base rate at 0.25%, it seems that there is not much room for FED to further cut the rate. It is speculated that once there is sign of economic recovery in US, the FED will increase the base rate accordingly, which shall change the down trend of USD.

中国基准利率继续保持在5.31%。该利率是从08年12月份下调的。中国的基准利率要比世界大多数发达国家都高。其中代表性的美国联邦储备利率现在只有0.25%，而欧洲央行利率经历了一系列下调之后现在也只有1%。如此全球低利率引发了人们对于通胀何时来临的各种猜测。