China expected to cut rates twice in 2015

China is expected to further cut the benchmark interest rates twice in 2015 by 25 basis points each time, said Mongan Stanley in a research report on global economic outlook.

The majority of market insiders expect that China will reduce the interest rates again, ever since the central bank cut the one-year benchmark lending rate by 40 basis points to 5.6 percent and the one-year benchmark deposit rate by 25 bps to 2.75 percent on Nov 22. Other benchmark deposit and lending rates were lowered accordingly.

Morgan Stanley lowered its forecast for Chins' economic growth by 0.1 percentage point to 7 percent because the growth of fixed asset investment continued to fall below market expectations although the government had taken measures to boost domestic consumption and stabilize infrastructure investment.

The consumer price index, a major gauge of inflation, rose 2.1 percent year-on-year on average from January to October, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. It is expected to increase by 2 percent next year, said economists and strategists at Morgan Staley.