The move means commercial banks will need to put less deposits in the central bank and will have more money to lend.

The interest rate cut represents the central bank's most aggressive liquidity3 injection so far this year.

The last time the central bank cut down on the benchmark interest rate was in 2012.

The move comes as the Chinese economy tumbled to the slowest quarterly growth since the first quarter in 2009 this past quarter, expanding only 7.3 percent.