PBOC data on Aug. 14 showed July corporate new-loan weighted-average rate just under 3.0%, about 20bps lower YoY. Experts note that in the current easing cycle policy rates have been cut about 1.15 percentage points while corporate loan averages have fallen roughly 2.6 percentage points, a larger move. Compared with the U.S. during its zero-rate period (average loan rates ~4.3%), Chinese loan rates are already low. Experts say future assessment of credit supply–demand should rely mainly on inter

PBOC data on Aug. 14 showed July corporate new-loan weighted-average rate just under 3.0%, about 20bps lower YoY. Experts note that in the current easing cycle policy rates have been cut about 1.15 percentage points while corporate loan averages have fallen roughly 2.6 percentage points, a larger move. Compared with the U.S. during its zero-rate period (average loan rates ~4.3%), Chinese loan rates are already low. Experts say future assessment of credit supply–demand should rely mainly on interest-rate signals; with China’s M2/GDP ratio elevated and credit supply able to meet real-economy financing needs, policy emphasis should shift from credit scale to price — i.e., market-rate changes.