China’s central bank cut its benchmark mortgage interest rate Tuesday for the first time in eight months to shore up the real estate market amid a prolonged property crisis in the world’s second-largest economy. The People’s Bank of China said it had lowered the five-year loan prime rate by 0.25 percentage point to 3.95 percent, the first reduction since June last year. The bank left unchanged the one-year loan prime rate, which serves as the benchmark lending rate, at 3.45 percent. The mortgage rate cut followed a monetary easing move implemented on Feb. 5 to slash the amount of cash that ban…