China cuts benchmark lending rate amid real estate crisis

China’s central bank cut its benchmark lending rate Monday for the second time this year to cope with a real estate crisis, after major property developer China Evergrande Group filed for bankruptcy in a U.S. court last week.

The People’s Bank of China said it has lowered the one-year loan prime rate by 0.10 percentage point to 3.45 percent, following a cut in June. The five-year loan prime rate -- the benchmark mortgage interest rate -- was left unchanged at 4.2 percent.

The world’s second-largest economy has struggled to recover from the fallout of its stringent “zero-COVID” policy involving...