China Lifts Cap on Life Insurance Interest Rate

　　The 2.5 percent pre-determined interest rates attached to life insurance products here in China have been scrapped¹.

 

　　The move is the latest effort by central government to liberalize the country's interest rates.

 

　　The People's Bank of China has already loosened its grip on bank lending rates.

 

　　Under the new regulations, insurance companies can set their own rates to a maximum of 3.5-percent.

 

　　The rigid² 2.5 percent cap left much of the insurance products on offer here in China much the same.

 

　　To prevent a policy-triggered price war in the insurance business, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission has also rolled out accompanying measures.

 

　　They include policies to boost old-age pension business and moves to support risk prevention.

 

　　For more on the issue, CRI's Paul James spoke³ earlier with Mark Huges, Executive Business Editor of China Daily.

1 scrapped   

废弃(scrap的过去式与过去分词)； 打架

参考例句：

• This machine is so old that it will soon have to be scrapped. 这架机器太旧，快报废了。
• It had been thought that passport controls would be scrapped. 人们曾认为会放开护照管制。

2 rigid   

adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的

参考例句：

• She became as rigid as adamant.她变得如顽石般的固执。
• The examination was so rigid that nearly all aspirants were ruled out.考试很严，几乎所有的考生都被淘汰了。

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。