The one-year loan prime rate (LPR) was kept unchanged at 3.85%, while the five-year LPR remained at 4.65%.

Most new and outstanding loans are based on the LPR, while the five-year rate influences the pricing of mortgages.

Thirty-one out of 36 traders and analysts in a snap Reuters poll predicted no change in either the one-year or five-year LPRs, although four predicted an increase.

The rate decision came after the People's Bank of China (PBOC) kept borrowing costs on the medium-term lending facility (MLF) unchanged for a seventh straight month this week.

MLF, one of the PBOC's main tools in managing longer-term liquidity in the banking system, serves as a guide for the LPR.

The LPR is a lending reference rate set monthly by 18 banks. The PBOC revamped the mechanism to price LPR in August 2019, loosely pegging it to the MLF rate.

(Reporting by Winni Zhou and Andrew Galbraith; Editing by Himani Sarkar)