(Photo: VCG)

BEIJING, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- China's central bank Saturday unveiled a plan to improve and reform the country's loan prime rate (LPR) mechanism in its latest efforts to cut financing costs for the real economy.

Starting from Aug. 20, the National Interbank Funding Center will disclose the new LPR at 9:30 a.m. on the 20th day of each month, according to a statement by the People's Bank of China (PBOC).

The number of quotation banks will be expanded from 10 to 18, including not only national banks, but also urban commercial banks, rural commercial banks, foreign-invested banks and private banks, to improve the representativeness of the LPR.

An above-five-year LPR will be available in addition to the current one-year LPR to serve as pricing references for new bank lending, according to the PBOC.