China cut its one-year loan prime rate (LPR) on Monday. The National Interbank Funding Center said the one-year LPR was lowered by 5 basis points to 3.8 percent – the first such change in over 19 months. The over-five-year LPR, which many lenders base their mortgage rates on, remained unchanged from the previous reading of 4.65 percent. Liu Zhiqin, a senior research fellow at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies from Renmin University of China, said the LPR reduction will bolster the real economy and provide more financing avenues for small-and medium-sized enterprises.