China cuts mortgage rate as property crisis deepens:
China’s central bank has cut its mortgage rate as officials work to support the crisis hit property market. The bank has lowered the five year loan rate by 1.5%, which is the biggest cut in history. Lockdowns due to the country's strict zero-Covid policies are also affecting businesses and consumers. Home sales in China have fallen for 11 months in a row, official data shows. That is the longest slump since China created a private property market in the late 1990s. Several Chinese developers have halted building work on homes that had already been sold, because of concerns