Central bank pledges to intensify fight against inflation

BEIJING - China's central bank on Wednesday vowed to "steadily guide credit expansion back to normal levels" and strengthen liquidity management in an effort to curb inflation and cool rising inflation expectation.

The central bank will make full use of its policy tools, including the reserve requirement ratio and interest rate, to steer money and lending growth back to normal levels, said Hu Xiaolian, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China (PBOC), according to a statement posted on the central bank's website.

The statement is seen as another signal that the central bank has made taming inflation a top priority after China's consumer inflation rose to 4.4 percent in October, the fastest pace in 25 months. Too much liquidity was regarded as one of the main reasons.