shanghai nov 19 reuters  china is set to keep its benchmark lending rate steady at its monthly fixing on monday a reuters survey showed as policymakers seek to limit risk taking in the property sector a snap poll of 23 market participants this week found 21 expected no change in either the oneyear loan prime rate lpr or the fiveyear tenor at next weeks setting that would be the 19th straight month that no change will be made to the rate and follows the peoples bank of chinas pboc decision this week to keep the interest rate on its mediumterm loans unchanged the remaining two respondents forecast a marginal cut of 5 basis points to the oneyear lpr and expected no change to the fiveyear tenor which influences the pricing of mortgages the oneyear lpr is currently at 385 and the fiveyear rate is at 465 the central bank fully rolled over maturing mediumterm lending facility mlf due this month keeping the borrowing cost unchanged for the 19th straight month the mlf serves as a guide for the lpr and many traders and analysts say any adjustment to the lpr should mimic changes to the borrowing cost of mlf loans the current downward pressure on the economy is relatively high and financial institutions lack motivation to expand credit lending ming ming head of fixed income research at citic securities said in a note against the backdrop of missing guidance for cuts to reserve requirement ratio or interest rates lowering lpr to narrow banks net interest margins will be even harder to promote credit expansion he said ming added policy already started to shift to marginal easing in response to the credit risks of real estate firms and the downturn in the property sector chinas property sector a major driver of economic growth has weakened sharply this year as beijing cracks down on speculation to lower financial risks read more premier li keqiang said this week that chinas sound economic fundamentals have not changed and insisted beijing would not engage in floodlike stimulus chinese policymakers i would imagine are trying to keep a very very strong balance between promoting economic growth but limiting leverage and then dealing with whats happening in the property sector said carl tannenbaum chief economist at northern trust the lpr is a lending reference rate set monthly by 18 banks all 23 responses in the survey were collected from selected participants on a private messaging platform reporting by reuters fixed income team writing by winni zhou editing by sam holmes