BEIJING — China's National Interbank Funding Center announced on Aug 20 that the one-year loan prime rate (LPR) came in at 4.25 percent, the first quotation after the country decided to reform the lending rate mechanism.

The new above-five-year LPR was 4.85 percent.

Introduced in 2013 and disclosed every trading day, the LPR functions as a market-based reference for lenders to set their loan interest rates.

On Aug 17, the central bank released a plan to improve and reform the LPR mechanism in its latest move to cut financing costs for the real economy.

The new LPR's quotations, which are based on the central bank's open market operations to better reflect market changes, will be disclosed at 9:30 am on the 20th day of each month.

The quotations will be effective until the next release on Sept 20.