China central bank says will maintain prudent policy to prevent inflation from spreading

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's central bank said on Saturday that it will maintain prudent monetary policy to prevent inflation from spreading.

In a third-quarter policy report released on Saturday, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) also said it will look to significantly lower real interest rates through reforms.

It said the weighted average lending rate fell 4 basis points in third quarter to 5.62%.

It also said it is looking at plans to switch the benchmark rate for existing loans to the new loan prime rate (LPR) that was launched in August.

(Reporting by Cate Cadell; Editing by Kim Coghill)