Mobile phone shipments soar

Mobile phone shipments rose 65.9 percent on a yearly basis to 36.09 million units last month, according to data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology. During the first three months of the year, China's mobile phone shipments stood at 97.97 million units, up 100.1 percent from a year ago, said the CAICT, a research institute under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Loan prime rate remains unchanged

China's one-year loan prime rate, a market-based benchmark lending rate, came in at 3.85 percent on Tuesday, unchanged from the previous month. The over-five-year LPR, on which many lenders base their mortgage rates, also remained unchanged from the previous reading of 4.65 percent, according to the National Interbank Funding Center.

Xinhua