China central bank to lower funding costs, prevent debt and inflation risks-adviser

China's central bank will continue to lower financing costs for the economy, but it must prevent leverage ratios from rising and should also consider inflation pressure, a central bank adviser said on Thursday.

Ma Jun, a member of the central bank's monetary committee, told the official Financial News that it would take some time for a recent cut in banks' reserve requirement ratios to affect the loan prime rate (LPR), the benchmark lending rate.

Despite recent signs of improvement in the economy, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) is widely expected to roll out more support measures this year after growth cooled to a near 30-year low in 2019.

(Reporting by Judy Hua, Lusha Zhang and Kevin Yao; Editing by Kim Coghill)