China rolls out new measures to bolster its property sector and economy

China on Tuesday rolled out new measures to help boost its economy and sluggish property sector as pressures ramp up ahead of a year-end target for hitting the government’s economic growth goal. The measures, some of the bigger moves made this year by Chinese officials, include encouraging targeted bank lending and new subsidies for homebuyers’ mortgage interest payments.

China’s central bank — the People’s Bank of China — said it will be lowering the interest rate for its “pledged supplementary lending” facility, or PSL, by a quarter of a percentage point, bringing the one-year rate down to 1.5%.

PSL is low-cost financing that China’s central bank provides to its major state policy banks to support state and public projects. The central bank said that by cutting the rates it hopes to better incentivize banks and better “serve national strategies.”

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