The new rate, called the loan prime rate, will guide commercial bankers in setting interest rates when lending to their best customers, said the People's Bank of China, the central bank.

"The loan prime rate is aimed at further promoting market-oriented interest rates, improving the benchmark rate systems and guiding the pricing of credit market products," the central bank said in the statement.

Under China's "loan prime rate" (LPR), nine of the country's biggest banks will every day report the lending rates they are offering to their best clients (presumably, major state-owned enterprises).

The loan prime rate will be announced every business day by the Shanghai-based interbank market and supplement the Shanghai interbank offered rate, or Shibor, the central bank said in a statement published on its Web site.