The People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, cut the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) of banks and benchmark interest rates Friday.

From Oct. 24, the RRR for financial institutions will be slashed by 0.5 percentage point. The RRR for qualified financial institutions supporting small and micro companies and agriculture will be lowered by another 0.5 percentage point, the PBOC announced.

Benchmark interest rates will also be cut. From Saturday, interest rates for one-year lending and deposits will be cut by 0.25 percentage point to 4.35 percent and 1.5 percent respectively, PBOC said.