Lending rate

THE central bank left its benchmark lending rate unchanged for the second straight month at its June fixing yesterday, matching market expectations, after the bank kept borrowing costs on medium-term loans steady last week.

The one-year loan prime rate (LPR) remained at 3.85 percent from last month’s fixing, while the five-year LPR was also steady at 4.65 percent from previously. The move in the LPR affects the price lenders charge corporates and households for loans, and the five-year rate influences the pricing of mortgages.

Domestic tourism

THE country registered a spike in domestic tourism with 6 billion trips in 2019, up 8.4 percent year on year, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Overseas travels from China surged 3.3 percent year on year to 154.6 million in 2019, while overseas tourists paid 145.3 million visits to China last year, an increase of 2.9 percent, said a report released by the ministry. Last year, the country’s tourism industry earned 6.63 trillion yuan (US$935 billion) in revenue, registering an annual growth of 11.1 percent, according to the report.

Duty-free market

CHINA’S duty-free consumption is accelerating due to policy incentives that will provide momentum for continued consumption growth, Xinhua quoted a Economic Information Daily report as saying.

Chinese cities of Beijing and Zhengzhou recently opened cityside duty-free shops, and more such stores are planned for Shanghai and Haikou. “China’s duty-free retail market possesses huge potential as people’s consumption capacity has increased amid widening market scope,” Guan Lixin, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, told the newspaper.