SINGAPORE—China’s central bank cut a key interest rate while keeping another unchanged, an unexpected policy shift that economists said would likely help the country’s moribund housing market but bring only limited relief to its struggling economy.
The latest in a series of targeted steps by the central bank highlights how policy makers in China are constrained by rising interest rates in the U.S. and Beijing’s zero-tolerance approach to the pandemic. Easing too aggressively would risk prompting capital to flee China in search of better returns, while lockdowns are crushing appetite for new loans from businesses and households.
