The reduction in existing mortgage rates will come amid several other property, economic and market support measures Beijing has announced over the past few weeks, as concerns mount about the health of the world's second-largest economy. Chinese lenders were widely expected to cut interest rates on existing mortgages after the PBOC earlier this month said that it would guide commercial banks to do so. The central bank's proposal to cut rates, which came after a wave of early repayments of mortgage debt, aims to reduce the interest rate costs for homebuyers and to boost consumption in a slowing economy. Adjusting existing mortgage rates is conducive to easing pressure on banks from mortgage prepayment, Lin Li, vice president of Agricultural Bank of China Ltd (601288.SS), the country's No.3 lender by assets, said earlier on Tuesday. Cutting deposit rates could help banks to maintain a proper level of NIM, one of the sources said.

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Persons: Tingshu Wang, Zhu Qibing, Lin Li, Fu Wanjun, NIM, Xiangming Hou, Rong Ma, Tang, Ryan Woo, Selena Li, Sumeet Chatterjee, Alex Richardson, Sharon Singleton Organizations: Agricultural Bank of, REUTERS, Bank, BEIJING, People's Bank of China, Reuters, HK, BOC International China, Citigroup, Agricultural Bank of China Ltd, Agricultural Bank, China's, Thomson Locations: Agricultural Bank of China, Beijing, China, Hong Kong