February LPR remains unchanged: 1-year at 3.0%, over 5 years at 3.5%

February Loan Prime Rate (LPR) quotes are released, with the LPR remaining unchanged for nine consecutive months.

The People’s Bank of China authorized the National Interbank Funding Center to announce that on February 24, 2026, the Loan Prime Rate (LPR) is: the 1-year LPR is 3.00%, and the over-5-year LPR is 3.50%, both unchanged from the previous month. These LPRs are valid until the next release.

As the 7-day reverse repo rate, a key policy rate, has remained unchanged since its reduction in May 2025, the pricing basis for the LPR this month has not changed. The last adjustment to the LPR was in May 2025, when both the 1-year and over-5-year LPRs were lowered by 10 basis points.

The first structural “cut” in interest rates this year was implemented on January 19, with the central bank also stating that there is still room for “reducing reserve requirements and interest rates” this year.

The recently released “China Monetary Policy Implementation Report for Q4 2025” states that a moderately easing monetary policy will continue to be implemented. Promoting stable economic growth and reasonable price increases are key considerations for monetary policy. Based on domestic and international economic and financial conditions and financial market operations, the policy’s strength, pace, and timing should be well managed. Flexible and efficient use of tools such as reserve requirement ratio cuts and interest rate reductions should be employed to maintain ample liquidity and relatively relaxed social financing conditions, guiding the reasonable growth of total financial volume and balanced credit deployment, aligning social financing scale and money supply growth with economic growth and inflation expectations. Further improvement of the interest rate regulation framework, strengthening the guidance of the central bank’s policy rates, refining the market-oriented interest rate formation and transmission mechanisms, and leveraging the market-based interest rate self-discipline mechanism are emphasized. Efforts should be made to strengthen the implementation and supervision of interest rate policies, reduce banks’ funding costs, and promote low overall social financing costs.

The Loan Prime Rate (LPR) is quoted by quoting banks based on the open market operation rate (the 7-day reverse repo rate) plus a spread, calculated by the National Interbank Funding Center, serving as a reference for bank loan pricing. Currently, the LPR includes two varieties: the 1-year and over-5-year rates.

(Source: The Paper)