"The central bank's rate cut decision was not a complete surprise to the market," said Ken Cheung, chief Asian FX strategist at Mizuho Bank.
Further interest rate cuts in China would only widen the yield gap with the United States, even if the Fed pauses this week, sending the yuan lower and accelerating capital outflows.
Tuesday's rate cut suggests policymakers are increasingly worried about the health of China's recovery, traders and analysts said.
Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources, that China was considering at least a dozen stimulus measures including cuts to interest rates to support areas such as real estate and domestic demand.
"There could be another RRR or policy interest rate cut in Q4, depending on the economic outcome over the next several months."
Persons:
Ken Cheung, Yi Gang, Cheung, Marco Sun, Frances Cheung, Goldman Sachs, Winni Zhou, Tom Westbrook, Sam Holmes, Jacqueline Wong
Organizations:
People's Bank of China, Mizuho Bank, MUFG Bank, Bloomberg, OCBC Bank, Thomson
Locations:
SHANGHAI, SINGAPORE, China, United States, outflows