SHANGHAI (June 26): China's central bank said on Thursday it would expand a pilot program on foreign exchange deposit rate from Shanghai's Free Trade Zone to all of Shanghai from Friday.

Under the plan, China will first liberalize interest rates on small-sum foreign exchange deposits from companies, and then expand the scheme to individuals, the Shanghai branch of the People's Bank of China said in a statement.

China will fully liberalise interest rates offered on smaller foreign currency accounts in the Shanghai free trade zone (FTZ), the central bank said on Wednesday.

In March, the PBOC abolished the upper limits on deposit rates offered by banks on foreign exchange accounts holding below $3 million. Lending rates and deposit rates on accounts holding more than $3 million have been liberalised throughout China since 2000.

China launched the Shanghai FTZ in September 2013 to help experiment with economic reforms, in particular financial innovation, hoping successful experiments there could eventually be duplicated throughout the country.