"Monetary policy is currently shifting toward prudence while tilting to slight tightening, a trend that has become more and more clear since the second half of 2016," Lian added.

China International Capital Corporation (CICC), a Beijing-based investment bank, said that authorities were turning their focus to "curbing asset bubbles and guarding against economic and financial risks."

At the Central Economic Work Conference in December, the Chinese leadership pledged to make a priority of preventing financial risks, saying that curbing asset bubbles would assume more importance in 2017.

The caution is justified by the property market, which saw housing prices jump sharply in 2016, and changes to inflation.

China's consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, in December increased 2.1 percent year on year. But producer prices rose 5.5 percent, the highest in more than five years, fanning inflation expectations.

However, analysts said policymakers would take a gradual approach, given internal and external uncertainties in China's economy, which needs to further consolidate.

China's economy grew 6.7 percent year on year in 2016, higher than most other major economies, but the slowest annual expansion in 26 years.

"The PBOC's moves will effectively guide market interest rates up, but we do not expect benchmark deposit and lending rates to be adjusted in the near term, considering both internal and external uncertainties on China's economy," CICC said.

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