China Statutory default interest (法定利率 / 逾期利息)
China Statutory default interest (法定利率 / 逾期利息): no single figure applies. The reason is set out below, cited to the governing instrument. Last checked against the official source on 10 Aug 2026.
Official source: 中华人民共和国民法典 (Civil Code) 第680条 · Last checked 2026-08-10 · source fingerprint
Mainland China fixes no statutory default interest rate for money debts. The widely quoted four-times-LPR figure is a judicial protection CEILING on private lending rates, not a legal rate, and overdue payment on ordinary contracts is compensated at a judicially determined LPR-plus band.
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| Current value | no single figure |
|---|---|
| In force from | — |
| Official source | 中华人民共和国民法典 (Civil Code) 第680条: '禁止高利放贷，借款利率不得违反国家有关规定。借款合同对支付利息没有约定的，视为没有利息' (usurious lending is prohibited; the lending rate must not contravene relevant State regulations; where a loan contract does not stipulate interest, it is deemed to bear none); 第676条: '借款人未按照约定的期限返还借款的，应当按照约定或者国家有关规定支付逾期利息' (a borrower who fails to repay by the agreed date shall pay overdue interest as agreed or as provided by relevant State regulations) — neither article states a rate |
| Last verified | 2026-08-10 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
REFUSAL — no Chinese statute fixes a default interest rate that a creditor can claim on an unpaid money debt. The Civil Code bans usury and points to 'relevant State regulations' without naming a number, and where a loan contract is silent on interest the loan is deemed interest-free (Art. 680; between natural persons, Art. 680 para. 3 likewise deems no interest). THE FOUR-TIMES-LPR FIGURE IS A CEILING, NOT A RATE: the Supreme People's Court's amended interpretation on private lending (民间借贷司法解释, in force 20 August 2020) sets the '司法保护上限' — the judicial protection ceiling — at four times the one-year Loan Prime Rate published by the National Interbank Funding Center on the 20th of each month. With the one-year LPR at 3.00% (published 20 July 2026) that ceiling is 12.00% per annum. It caps what an AGREED rate may recover in a private-lending dispute; it does not entitle anyone to 12% on an unpaid invoice, and it does not apply to loans by licensed financial institutions. FOR ORDINARY COMMERCIAL DEBTS the compensation is judicial discretion, not a rate: under the SPC sales-contract interpretation (法释〔2012〕8号 as amended 23 December 2020, in force 1 January 2021), where the contract fixes no late-payment penalty the court '可以' (may) compute the seller's overdue-payment loss on the basis of the one-year LPR prevailing when the breach occurred, 加计30-50% (uplifted by 30% to 50%) — a band the judge selects within, not a statutory figure. Breaches before 20 August 2019 use the older PBOC benchmark lending rate plus the penalty-rate standard. POST-JUDGMENT IS THE ONE FIXED NUMBER, and it is an additional penalty rather than a general legal rate: Civil Procedure Law Art. 264 (formerly 253) doubles the debt interest during a period of delayed performance, and the SPC interpretation 法释〔2014〕8号 (in force 1 August 2014) fixes the doubled portion by formula — 加倍部分债务利息 = the unpaid money obligation determined by the effective judgment, excluding ordinary debt interest, × 日万分之一点七五 (0.0175% per day) × days of delay — i.e. about 6.39% per annum, running on top of whatever ordinary interest the judgment awarded. Serving any of these as 'the' statutory rate would mislabel a ceiling, a discretionary band or an enforcement penalty.
Get it programmatically
curl https://asiaref.dev/v1/cn/statutory-interest
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://asiaref.dev/v1/cn/statutory-interest/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://asiaref.dev/provenance/cn/statutory-interestOther China series: PBOC Loan Prime Rate (1-year LPR / 贷款市场报价利率) · VAT standard rate (增值税基本税率) · VAT registration threshold · Minimum wage (no national rate — province-set; highest is Shanghai) · Public holidays (国家法定节假日 + State Council annual arrangement) · CPI inflation (year-on-year, 居民消费价格指数) · Enterprise Income Tax standard rate (企业所得税) · Withholding tax rates · Individual Income Tax · Statutory social-insurance contributions
The same figure elsewhere: Hong Kong · India · Indonesia · Iraq · Israel · all 28