(Yicai) Oct. 18 -- The People's Bank of China will likely trim the loan prime rates, the country's benchmark lending rates to which mortgages, corporate loans, and fixed-asset investments are anchored, this month after major commercial banks slashed deposit rates, according to the governor of the central bank.

The PBOC will likely cut the LPRs by 20 to 25 basic points on Oct. 21, Pan Gongsheng said during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Financial Street Forum Annual Conference earlier today.

The bank last made LPR cuts in July, lowering the one-year and five-year rates by 10 bps to 3.35 percent and 3.85 percent, respectively.

The LPRs are announced around the 20th of each month and are calculated by the National Interbank Funding Center authorized by the PBOC. The rates average the quotes from 20 representative commercial lenders after excluding the highest and lowest, serving as the market's benchmark lending rates for the next 30 days.

China's big six state-owned commercial banks -- Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of China, Bank of Communications, Agricultural Bank of China, and Postal Savings Bank of China -- lowered deposit rates for the second time since the end of July early today, creating room for commercial lenders to adjust their quotes at the National Interbank Funding Center.

Editor: Martin Kadiev