“The move was widely expected, given last week’s weak data releases,” Qu Hongbin, an economist at HSBC in Hong Kong, wrote Sunday in a research note. “However, the magnitude of the cut — the largest since November 2008 — signals Beijing’s heightened concerns over the growth slowdown,” he said. Mr. Qu calculates the move could free 1.2 trillion renminbi, or around $200 billion, for new lending.

Still, the cut does not automatically translate into new lending. China’s banks have grown wary of issuing loans to smaller or riskier borrowers, given the country’s slowing growth. And the banks’ profitability has come under pressure as Beijing has pursued financial overhauls, including steps toward full liberalization of interest rates.

Most analysts expect that China will, in the coming months, make further reductions to reserve requirements for banks and to benchmark interest rates. But doubts remain over whether these steps will be enough to achieve the official target of about 7 percent growth for the full year.

Despite easing moves so far, China’s slowing growth has meant that Beijing has been confronted by “rising skepticism about the ability of the government to generate an economic recovery as it typically did in the past,” Goldman Sachs analysts wrote in a research note on Sunday.

The new rate reduction, and lower overall borrowing costs in recent weeks, “marks a new stage in policy making with a more aggressive stance,” they wrote. “We believe other loosening measures are likely to become more aggressive as well.”