Gelonghui July 21 | According to the Hong Kong Economic Times, in the second half of July, a total of 6 banks lowered the Hong Kong dollar time deposit interest rate for the whole week (compared to 5 banks last week), namely Citic, Shangshang, Tianxing, PAObank, Mox, and Jiyou. In addition, 5 banks raised the interest rate against the market (2 more than last week), namely OCBC Bank, ICBC Asia, Forrong, Daxin, and Standard Chartered. Among them, 6-month time deposit rates hit another record high - OCBC Bank unexpectedly launched a 4.39% flash rate, beating the "4 crown kings" (4% of 4 small and medium-sized banks), and the promotion will last until next Saturday (27th). If the threshold of OCBC Bank is HK$1 million, the 6-month interest rate is calculated at 4.39%, and the interest earned at maturity is HK$21,950. Experts pointed out that the market expects the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates in September. The high interest rate environment hinders lending, leading Hong Kong banks to follow the interest rate cut slowly, but lacking incentives to attract deposits with high interest rates. Only individual small and medium-sized banks launched flash promotions to break the record. Ng Kwan Hung, deputy general manager of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, said that the high interest rate environment dragged down loans, and loans in the first five months of this year fell by 2.4%; it is expected that the high interest rate environment will continue to affect loan demand in the second half of the year.