Mainland officials say they may cut interest rates further and ease the tax burden on low-income earners as the country's deepening economic slowdown threatens social stability.

Zhang Ping, the director of the National Development and Reform Commission, yesterday gave a bleak outlook for the world's fourth-biggest economy, a day after the central bank cut interest rates by the biggest margin in 11 years.

'The global financial crisis has not bottomed out yet and the impact is deepening in China,' Zhang told a briefing. 'Some domestic economic indicators point to an accelerated slowdown in November.'

The government might cut interest rates and lower banks' reserve requirements further, National Bureau of Statistics officials, led by spokesman Li Xiaochao, wrote on the Ministry of Finance's website.

South China Morning Post