The People’s Bank of China lowered its key policy rate — the medium-term lending rate — from 2.75% to 2.65%. The one-year rate dictates the cost of its lending to banks. It was the first such rate reduction since last August, and largely expected following a surprise cut by the central bank Tuesday to China’s seven-day reverse repo rate. The trimming of the repo rate — also by 0.1 percentage points to 1.9% — marked its first since August.
Meanwhile, even more young people in China’s towns and cities are out of work. Urban youth unemployment — already at record levels — hit another new high in May, reaching 20.8%. That was a slight uptick from April data, which showed that the jobless rate for people between 16 and 24 years old had reached 20.4%. Rural unemployment isn’t included in official data. On a recent visit to China, JPMorgan\n \n CEO Jamie Dimon expressed alarm over the figure.