The five-year fixed deposit interest rate of banks is entering the “one-digit” era, and the “inversion” with the three-year deposit interest rate is intensifying.

According to the monitoring of Rong360 Digital Technology Research Institute, in March 2025, the average three-year interest rate for bank fixed deposit and withdrawal was 2.042%, and the average five-year interest rate was 1.883%, both falling below 2% for the first time. Since April, more than 20 banks including China Everbright Bank and China Merchants Bank have cut deposit interest rates, with the adjustment range being 5 to 40 basis points. Among them, WeBank announced that starting from April 29th, the one-year to five-year interest rates would all be reduced to 1.60%, approaching that of state-owned banks.

Some state-owned banks, joint-stock banks and local banks that were the first to make adjustments have offered interest rates on 5-year fixed deposit and withdrawal products that are nearly 50 basis points lower than those on 3-year products, resulting in a situation where “the longer you deposit money, the lower the interest rate”.

On April 28th, the APP of China Construction Bank showed that the three-year interest rate for the fixed deposit and fixed withdrawal product was 1.90%, while the five-year interest rate was only 1.55%. The three-year fixed deposit and fixed withdrawal interest rates of Ping An Bank, Hua Xia Bank and Guangzhou Rural Commercial Bank are 1.95%, 2.1% and 2.15% respectively, while the five-year rates are all only 1.6%.
In response, a customer manager from a branch of China Construction Bank in Wuhan told Jiupai Finance reporter: “Currently, the interest rate for the five-year term is inverted. This is mainly to encourage people not to deposit for too long and to consume more.”