Deposit rates are expected to remain close to current levels through at least the first half of the year.

But more deposit rates were beginning to decline than a week earlier.

Bank deposit rates have been falling for more two years and in some cases are half the level they were a year ago.

One is that banks are reducing deposit rates because they do not need the money.

Bank deposit rates, also regulated, would not rise, the report said.

One year deposit rate should be marginally positive in real terms.

"And when deposit rates fall, they'll tend to keep out of other investments."

Late today, they reduced the deposit rate by one-quarter of a point, to 5 percent.

But the central bank did not change bank deposit rates.

In contrast, China's benchmark one year deposit rate is 3%.

Consumer deposit rates have steadily become less competitive over the past few months.

Low deposit rates also encourage Chinese consumers to spend more, a government goal, rather than save.

By comparison, deposit rates at commercial banks fell this week, with money market accounts down a basis point, to 6.87 percent.

But deposit rates are at their lowest in decades.

The auction is often regarded as a harbinger of bank deposit rate changes.

Analysts and traders said that two diverse factors were driving up the deposit rates.

The auction is often considered a harbinger of deposit rate changes that banks could put into effect in the weeks ahead.

The auction is widely regarded as a signal of changes in deposit rates by banks.

Interest rates on the bonds may be about 40 percent higher than savings deposit rates, the agency said.

The lending and deposit rates were unchanged at 14 and 10 percent.

Under these rules, deposit rates, known as "dividends", are in theory related to a bank's profitability.

The spread of interest rates is the lending rate minus the deposit rate.

The rate on March futures - essentially the market forecast of short-term bank deposit rates next month - was 4.01 percent two weeks ago.

The auction is often regarded as a barometer of how banks will set deposit rates in the weeks ahead.

Deposit rates fell more quickly than the rates it charged on loans and investments.