国内英语新闻:China to raise deposit reserve requirement ratio to rein in economy

The central bank should introduce further tightening measures and continue to shift China's monetary policy back to "a normal one."

Bank lending fell to 2.6 trillion yuan (380.7 billion U.S.dollars) in the first quarter, compared with a record 4.58 trillion yuan new loans in the corresponding period last year, which was part of the government stimulus plan to support economic recovery.

The central bank said in an earlier report that a major task this year would be to strengthen liquidity management and keep an "appropriate" growth of money supply.

The government has repeatedly stated that the proactive fiscal policy and relatively easy monetary policy would continue given that the economic conditions remained complicated.

Tang Min, vice secretary-general of China Development Research Foundation, said the RRR hike was targeted at asset bubbles, especially those triggered by the surging property market.

Chinese regulators had been taking steps to cool the real estate market and bring down soaring home prices in the past month by cracking down on real estate speculation and providing more affordable homes.

The central bank would keep a close watch on the property market to see whether these measures took effect, and if not, the PBOC might consider raising interest rates to keep inflation in check, said Tang.

But a monitoring period would precede the rate hike, he said.

"The central bank is very prudent on raising interest rates," said Professor Guo Tianyong, of the Central University of Finance and Economics, as it would bring up production costs for domestic enterprises, and in turn hinder economic recovery.

A rate hike was unlikely in the short term, and would depend on price trends in the next few months, he said.