Thank for Mr Joseph Yam for his inspiration of the “divisible by nine” rule

It seems odd that the People's Bank of China employs a 27-basis-points rather than a quarter of one percent adjustment that prevailing in most countries or territories in the world like in the US. I could not figure out the reason behind long before until I came across the article published by Mr Joseph Yam in his Viewpoint column of the HKMA. Thanks to Mr Joseph Yam for his inspiration and it is quite interesting that I want to share with you.

According to Yam, the secret of the rule was that it is based on the assumption that there were 360 days (rather than 365) and 12 months in a year, and always 30 days in a month. Also it is a usual and conventional practice for our Chinese to use an abacus instead of an electronic calculator in old days. It was quite convenient then. That means it was a conventional or a usual practice of using "divisible by nine" rule for setting interest rates in China.

The numerical figures of ‘3’, ‘6’ and ‘9’ always symbol the eternity or infinity traditionally. It is literately amazing.

Reference: http://www.info.gov.hk/hkma/eng/viewpt/20060629e.htm

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