Quotable

"With these changes, we think the People's Bank of China is trying to kill two birds with one stone - reducing borrowing costs and accelerating the liberalization of interest rates."

HSBC chief China economist Qu Hongbin. Cutting interest rates will also help establish a mechanism in which the rates are decided by the market, he said.

"The Chinese banking sector is dominated by state-owned big lenders, and their needs are not perfectly in line with small and private firms, which bear the brunt of high financing costs. Changing the landscape of the banking sector is critical in reducing financing costs for the real economy."

Lian Ping, chief economist with the Bank of Communications.

"Current policy adjustments by all countries are primarily targeted at supporting domestic economic growth. There isn't much willingness to raise a currency war."

Zhuang Jian, senior economist with Asian Development Bank. China's rate cut is to support economic structural reforms as well and too much should not be read into it, he said.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 11/28/2014 page18)