China’s central bank on Tuesday cut a key benchmark lending rate used to price mortgages, as Beijing seeks to rescue its housing market from a deepening crisis and boost flagging growth in the country’s economy.

China has struggled to kickstart growth as it battles a prolonged property sector downturn, soaring youth unemployment and a global slowdown that has hammered demand for goods from the world’s second-largest economy.

The five-year loan prime rate (LPR) was lowered from 4.2 to 3.95 percent, the People’s Bank of China announced, in the first cut since June.

It is the largest cut to the rate since it was introduced in 2019, according to Bloomberg, deeper than that expected by economists polled by the financial newswire.

The one-year LPR, which serves as a benchmark for corporate loans, remained unchanged at 3.45 percent. The one-year rate was last lowered in August, while the five-year LPR had previously been reduced in June.