Abstract: The choice of the benchmark interest rate is the focus of China’s market-oriented interest rate reform. Based on the four kinds of interest rates and combined with the technical method of the directed acyclic graph, this paper conducts an empirical study of the benchmark interest rate option in China’s financial markets, The result indicates that in the present context of the dual-track interest rate system the market-oriented interest rates can not play the role of the benchmark interest rate yet, while the controlled interest rates represented by the benchmark rate of deposits is served as the benchmark interest rate in China’s financial markets. As for the market-oriented interest rates, Shibor has a stronger property as the benchmark interest rate than the repo rate

Key words: dual-track system of interest rates; benchmark interest rate options; market-oriented reform of interest rates