Bank reserve ratio raised to cool economy

(Agencies/Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-11-11 09:12

China's commercial banks lent out 3.36 trillion yuan in the first nine months, surpassing the full-year figure of 2006.

China's economy is in its fifth straight year of double-digit growth, reaching 11.5 percent in the third quarter this year. But the economy is experiencing inflation pressure, largely from sharp increases in food prices, and economists complain that too much growth is being driven by investments in factories and in high-flying real estate and stock markets.

This reserve ratio hike is expected to remove about 190 billion yuan from the financial system. Local-currency deposits stood at 38.3 trillion yuan at the end of September.

Besides raising the required reserve ratio, the central bank has also increased interest rates five times this year and sold bills to soak up cash from the financial system.

Fixed-asset investment in urban areas climbed 26.4 percent in the first nine months from a year earlier, up from the 24.5 percent pace in all of 2006. Industrial production jumped 18.9 percent in September, the biggest gain in three months.

In its quarterly report, the People's Bank of China said inflation will accelerate to about 4.5 percent this year from 1.5 percent in 2006, citing stronger inflation expectations and pressure from food, energy and labor costs.

Inflation of 6.2 percent in September was close to a decade high because of food-price gains. The rate exceeds the return on bank deposits and encourages households to switch savings into stocks and real estate.

Property prices in China's 70 biggest cities climbed 8.2 percent in the third quarter, according to the statistics bureau.

China's trade surplus jumped 56 percent in September from a year earlier, taking it to US$185.7 billion for the first nine months, more than the US$177.5 billion record for all of 2006.

China's economic growth slowed from 11.9 percent in the second quarter, the most in more than 12 years.

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