Chinese banks held their benchmark lending rates on Wednesday, following the central bank’s decision to skip cutting policy interest rates earlier this month. The one-year loan prime rate was held at 3.45% for the fourth month, in line with the forecasts from almost all of the 15 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The five-year rate, a reference for mortgages, was also kept at 4.2%, as expected, data from the People’s Bank of China showed. The loan rates are based on the interest rates that 18 banks offer their best customers, and are published by the PBOC monthly. They are quoted as a spread over the central bank’s ... (full story)