中国人民银行周四宣布，6月8日开始人民币存贷款基准利率分别下调0.25个百分点。这是自2008年12月以来中国中央银行首次下调基准利率，三年来，央行五次上调利率吸收资金流动性。

先看相关英文报道：

The People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, announced Thursday it would cut the benchmark interest rate for deposits and loans by 25 basis points beginning Friday. This was the first time that China's central bank cut the benchmark rates since December 2008, after which it has raised the rates for five times to drain liquidity.

分析：

上述报道中，“benchmark interest rate”的意思是“基准利率”，也可说成“base rate”。基准利率是金融市场上具有普遍参照作用的利率，其他利率水平或金融资产价格均可根据这一基准利率水平来确定。在中国，基准利率以中国人民银行对国家专业银行和其他金融机构规定的存贷款利率为准。

今年5月中旬，中行人民银行也下调了存款类金融机构人民币存款准备金率0.5个百分点。具体了解“存款准备金率”>>>

一些相关词汇：

The People's Bank of China(PBOC) 中国人民银行

drain liquidity 吸收流动性

release liquidity 释放流动性

assets price 资产价格

例句：

Once the base rate gets close to zero, interest-rate cuts no longer works, however chillythe economic outlook.

一旦基准利率接近零，不管经济前景如何冷淡，都无法再继续采取降息举措了。

China issued the bonds not so much because it needs the money, but to help set benchmark rates for other issuers to compare themselves against.

中国此次发行债券主要并不是因为缺钱，而是为其它债券发行方确立了一个可以参考的基准利率。

As widely expected, the Bank of Korea left its benchmark interest rate on hold at 4.5 per cent as it waited to gauge the impact of Monday's test.

正如外界广泛预计的那样，韩国央行将其基准利率维持在4.5%，以便有更多时间评估周一试验的影响。