China's central bank announced Friday a lowering of the benchmark interest rate for one-year deposits by 25 basis points and of the one-year lending rate by 40 basis points, from Saturday.

This is the first adjustment to the benchmark rates since July 2012.

After the cut, one-year deposit rate will stand at 2.75 percent, while one-year lending will be at 5.6 percent, according to the central bank website.

The move comes as the economy is under pressure with GDP expanding by 7.3 percent year on year in Q3, compared with 7.5 percent in Q2 and 7.4 percent in Q1.

Q3 growth was the slowest quarterly growth since Q1, 2009.