The Credit and Monetary Council, affiliated to the Central Bank of Syria, has lowered the reference interest rates on time deposits by 50 basis points. The cut, announced in mid-January, follows a similar reduction in rates in September (October 2010, Economic policy). The new recommended range is 5-7%, depending on the maturity of the deposits. The rate can actually be set plus or minus 2 percentage points from these limits, on the condition that the gap between the lowest and the highest rates provided by a bank for its customers is less than 3 percentage points. The Central Bank has indicated that it views the lowering of rates as a means to stimulate lending for investment, particularly by private-sector banks. According to the most recent monetary survey issued by the Central Bank, as of end-September 2010, the loan/deposit ratio of Syria's private banks was only about 50% (compared with 100% in Jordan). This was higher than in September 2009, when the ratio was 41%, but there is considerable scope for these banks to increase their lending. The authorities have recently opened up more opportunities for the private banks by issuing the first batch of Treasury bills (January 2011, Economic policy) and encouraging some public-sector enterprises to borrow from these banks. The decision to cut deposit rates may have been influenced by the relatively low rates that were quoted in the auctions for the Treasury bills. The rates agreed in the auction for five batches of bills ranged from 1.2% (annualised) for the six-month tranche to 2.84% for the five-year securities. However, the bulk of the bills were allocated to public-sector banks, which quoted aggressively low rates. For the five-year paper, for example, the bids ranged from 2.3% to 7%. The Central Bank does not appear to have been overly concerned by the rising trend of consumer price inflation (see Economic performance).