sition":5,"name":"Comment","item":{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https://www.thestandard.com.hk/comment"}}]}]17:T49f,

Shares in Hong Kong were flat and mainland China stocks gained after the People's Bank of China cut a key rate for the second time this year.

The central bank trimmed the benchmark interest rates by 20 bps to a record low of 3.85 percent.

Battered by the coronavirus that spread from Wuhan in Hubei province across the mainland China's ecoonmy shrank by 6.8 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, the worst since 1992. Earlier, the centra bank, trimmed the five-year loan prime rate by 10 basis points to 4.65 percent from 4.75 percent.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index barely moved at the close at 24,330.02, down by 49.98 points,or 0.21 percent.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index closed at 2,852.55, up by 0.50 percent, while the Shenzhen Stock Exchange Composite Index ended the session at 1,767.86, up by 1 percent.

1f:T5a1,Former Morgan Stanley Asia chairman Stephen Roach said China must raise household consumption to account for half of its economic output over the next decade, Bloomberg reported. The economist told Bloomberg TV on Thursday that China needs a new source of growth, and the consumer is that source. “They have to be much more aggressive in establishing a target for what they’re trying to achieve in the upcoming 15th Five Year Plan,” Roach said, according to Bloomberg. China’s gross domestic product reached 134.9 trillion yuan (HK$147.11 trillion) last year, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, with household consumption accounting for 39.9 percent of output, or 53.9 trillion yuan. That ratio remains far below the

HK shares barely move, China stocks gain at close