China on Monday cut the market-based benchmark lending rate in a bid to shore up growth.

The one-year loan prime rate (LPR), which influences most new and outstanding loans in China, came in at 3.65 percent Monday, down from 3.7 percent.

The over-five-year LPR, on which many lenders base their mortgage rates, was lowered by 15 basis points to 4.3 percent.

This month marks the third anniversary of China's LRP reform. The LPR mechanism was revamped in August 2019 to better reflect market changes.

The LPR is used to guide the real lending rates to decrease and set up an interest rate transmission mechanism featuring "a transmission from MLF rates to LPR and then to lending rates", thus greatly smoothing the transmission channel of monetary policies and strengthening the mutual reference between lending rates and bond rates, according to an article about China's interest rate system and market-based interest rate reform, written by the central bank governor Yi Gang and published last year. 

(With input from Xinhua)