"China's central bank on Tuesday cut its benchmark interest rate and freed banks to lend more, the latest signs of the government's growing distress over slumping stocks and slowing economic growth. The central bank's action followed a global stock market rout in which China led the declines. The main Shanghai share index plunged another 7.6 percent on Tuesday, to its lowest level this year. That brought its three-day decline to 22 percent, signaling that two months' worth of attempts by the government to prop up stock prices had limited effects. On Tuesday, China's prime minister, Li Keqiang, acknowledged that the country was feeling the effects of market turbulence, but insisted that the economy remained sound," The New York Times reports.

The Wall Street Journal writes, "China fired a double-barreled easing shot after its stock market plunged yet again Tuesday. This included an interest-rate cut and a reduction of bank reserve-requirement ratios, both aimed at both cushioning the stock-market fall and spurring the real economy. But in a significant long-term move, the central bank took another step toward liberalizing interest rates. The People's Bank of China said banks would now be free to offer what they wanted on rates for one-year deposits. These apply to accounts in which savers must keep their money in the bank for a year, similar to a certificate of deposit. That follows a move in May, when the PBOC gave banks additional leeway-though not total freedom-to set deposit rates on short-duration deposit accounts."

"Major Chinese stock indexes nosedived more than 7 percent, hitting their lowest levels since December, following their more than 8 percent plunge on Monday that sent shockwaves through global financial markets. [MKTS/GLOB] China, one of the main engines of the world economy, has overtaken Greece at the top of the worry list of global investors, who fret its economy is growing at a much slower pace than the official 7 percent target for 2015. But unlike in July, when Beijing directed hundreds of billions of dollars into the market in an unprecedented rescue operation, policymakers have largely sat on their hands during the latest bout of turbulence, which began last week," Reuters reports.