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 WASHINGTON — Concerned about waning economic growth, central banks in Europe and China announced measures Thursday to increase borrowing and spending by businesses and consumers, a response that was all the more striking because it was uncoordinated. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Three major central banks announced policy changes in the space of an hour. China’s central bank unexpectedly cut regulated bank lending rates for the second time in four weeks. The European Central Bank cut its benchmark interest rate to 0.75 percent, the lowest level in its 14-year history. And the Bank of England announced it would expand its holdings of government bonds by about 15 percent. 
 
 The Federal Reserve announced two weeks ago that it would extend its own bond-buying program until the end of the year. 
 
 The actions once again cast central bankers in the role of primary responders to the global economic malaise, aiming at the same basic goal that they have tried to hit repeatedly over the last six years: encouraging people and businesses to borrow and spend and take greater risks with their investments. 
 
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 But Europe is mired in an economic recession and a political crisis. The United States is faring somewhat better in both respects, but hardly booming. China is suffering what its government has begun to describe as a sharp economic slowdown. And policy makers have not yet succeeded in restoring public confidence that better days are coming. 
 
 The latest round of modest measures — a nibble at interest rates, a few forkfuls of bonds — are unlikely to change that record, instead stoking the debate between those demanding stronger action and those convinced that central banks have done all they should. 
 
 Reaction to the new measures was subdued. Analysts used phrases like “helpful at the margins” and “it doesn’t hurt.” European stock markets rose in an initial burst of pleasure, then receded. American stock indexes fell early, then recovered their losses. 
 
 “These are not big steps; I would not expect them to have a huge effect, but I think they move in the right direction,” said Donald Kohn, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who served as the Fed’s vice chairman from 2006 to 2010. “I think it’s certainly the case that monetary policy can’t cure all the world’s ills, but I think it can do some good, and the central banks of the world are doing what they can.” 
 
 The Bank for International Settlements, an umbrella group for central banks, cautioned in its annual report last month that central banks could not solve the structural problems that are plaguing Europe and impeding growth. 
 
 Indeed, it said that monetary stimulus “can buy time, but may actually make it easier to waste that time, thus possibly delaying the return to a self-sustaining recovery,” by making it easier to postpone changes in fiscal policy. 
 
 The Fed’s chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, and his European counterparts have tried repeatedly to shift the burden of economic policy making to elected officials, urging them to bolster short-term growth by addressing long-term problems like the level of public debt and the cost of social programs. But countries have made little progress on those issues, and Thursday was the latest in a lengthening series of moments in which the central bankers blinked, sighed and put just a little more sugar in the bowl. 
 
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 The range of actions announced Thursday highlighted how far they have wandered from the traditional tools of central banking. Policy makers increasingly are selecting among options that are theoretically powerful but largely unproved, and officials in London and Frankfurt announced contrasting choices about the best approach to improve their respective economies. 
 
 The European Central Bank announced a reduction in its benchmark interest rate to 0.75 percent from 1 percent, which was once regarded as an effective minimum. The bank’s president, Mario Draghi, said he was optimistic about the long-term benefits of steps announced last week by European leaders to bolster the euro zone. But for now, he said, economic problems continued to deepen. 
 
 "We see now a weakening basically of growth in the whole of the euro area, including the country or the countries that had not experienced that before,” Mr. Draghi said at a news conference after Thursday’s announcement. 
 
 The Bank of England, which already had reduced its benchmark interest rate to a record low of 0.5 percent in 2009 and has kept it there ever since, chose to pull on a different lever. It said Thursday in London that it would add government securities worth £50 billion ($78 billion) to its existing portfolio of £325 billion ($508 billion) in its latest effort to jolt the struggling British economy out of a double-dip recession. 
 
 The policy, often described as quantitative easing, works to lower borrowing costs by reducing the supply of debt available to investors, pushing them to accept lower interest rates and to shift money into riskier assets. 
 
 George Buckley, chief British economist at Deutsche Bank in London, said the impact of the new asset purchases could increase gross domestic product by 0.5 percentage points. “This is helpful at the margins, but the big issue is what happens to the European economy as that will be transmitted across the English Channel,” Mr. Buckley said. “Fifty billion pounds in quantitative easing is not going to solve the problems. All the Bank of England can hope to do is to offset some of the headwinds from Europe.” 
 
 The Chinese central bank has more room to maneuver than its Western counterparts, because interest rates remain relatively high, and because it can set lending rates directly, rather than exerting only indirect influence. It announced a cut in the regulated rate for one-year bank loans by 0.31 percentage points, to 6 percent. And it said banks could charge as little as 70 percent of that rate to selected customers; the minimum had stood at 90 percent until last month, when it was reduced to 80 percent. 
 
 It provided no explanation for its moves, which take effect Friday morning. But Chinese policy makers have probably received at least a rough preview of the nation’s second-quarter economic statistics scheduled for release next week. Most economists now expect those figures to show considerably weaker growth, at least compared with China’s vigorous expansion over most of the last three decades. 
 
 “This aggressive policy action reflects, in our view, a deepening concern by policy makers that the economy has yet to find a bottom,” Nick Chamie, an economist at RBC Dominion Securities, wrote in a research note. ||||| Markets dropped Thursday after a surprise rate cut from China spooked investors into worrying that the downturn in the world's second-largest economy may be bigger than they had expected. 
 
 A warning from Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, that risks remained to the economy of the 17 countries that use the euro didn't help matters. The bank's rate-setting panel had earlier unanimously decided to cut the main interest rate to a record low of 0.75 percent in an effort to stimulate growth. 
 
 The day has been dominated by central banks. The People's Bank of China cut its main lending rate by 0.31 percentage points to 6 percent and reduced its deposit rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 3 percent. It said the moves should boost growth in the second half of year but analysts said it hinted at a deepening economic concern. 
 
 Mark Williams, chief Asia economist at Capital Economics, said the move by the Chinese central bank may indicate that policymakers have had a sneak preview of June figures and "not liked what they've seen." 
 
 The Chinese authorities may have wanted to accentuate the impact of their rate cut by doing it alongside others in Europe to encourage talk of a coordinated response to the slowdown in the global economy. 
 
 "Again, though, this might simply underline the seriousness of the downside risks," said Williams. 
 
 The move overshadowed developments in Europe, which were expected by the markets. 
 
 The Bank of England, at the same time as China's central bank, approved another 50 billion pounds ($78 billion) injection into the ailing British economy. Under the so-called quantitative easing program, the Bank purchases government bonds from banks, in the hope that they will use the money to lend to businesses and consumers. The new purchases are expected to take 4 months to complete. 
 
 The ECB also delivered on market expectations by cutting its main interest rate. Investors remain skeptical, however, as to whether it will be enough to turn around the eurozone economy, which appears headed for recession. 
 
 "It is clear that market sentiment is somewhat mixed, and that news from Europe rightly continues to carry a game changing amount of weight," said Simon Furlong, a trader at Spreadex. 
 
 In Europe, Germany's DAX was 1.2 percent lower at 6,487 while the CAC-40 in France fell 1.5 percent to 3,219. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was 0.2 percent lower at 5,672. 
 
 The euro was hit particularly hard, falling 1.2 percent to $1.2373. 
 
 In the U.S., the Dow Jones industrial average was down 0.6 percent a 12,870 while the broader S&P 500 index fell 0.6 percent to 1,366. 
 
 Developments around the world offset some encouraging news on the U.S. jobs front in the run-up to Friday's nonfarm payrolls data, which often set the market tone for a week or two after their release. 
 
 The ADP private payrolls firm said 176,000 jobs had been created in June. That was above expectations and has raised predictions about the gain to be reported in Friday's government data. 
 
 "Take the ADP results with a handful of coarse salt as it is well-known to throw many a curveball," said Jennifer Lee, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets. "But I would love to be wrong this time." 
 
 Earlier in Asia before China's rate cut, Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 0.3 percent to 9,079.80 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.4 percent to 19,792.02. South Korea's Kospi slipped 0.1 percent to 1,875.49. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.1 percent to 4,169.20. China's Shanghai Composite tumbled 1.2 percent to 2,201.35. 
 
 Oil prices dipped alongside stocks, with benchmark oil for August delivery down 61 cents at $87.05 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
– The European Central Bank today cut its key interest rate by a quarter-point to .75%, its lowest level yet, in a move the New York Times describes as the ECB's "most aggressive" since the eurozone crisis hit. Though the move was widely expected, it does bring the benchmark rate to what was once considered the lower bound on the official rate. The action will make it cheaper for businesses and consumers to take loans. In a second, more surprising, move, the ECB also cut by a quarter-point the interest rate it pays banks on overnight deposits, bringing that to zero and giving banks reason to lend the money, rather than sock it away with the ECB. The Times notes that the moves leave the ECB with few crisis-combating tools left. The next step would probably involve a massive bond-buying spree, which could anger Germany because it doesn't want to get stuck bearing the brunt of any losses the ECB could suffer on its bond holdings. Today's other major rate news comes from China: The AP reports the People's Bank of China cut its main lending rate by 0.31 points to 6% and reduced its deposit rate by a quarter-point to 3%, moves analysts believe hint at deepening economic concern.