国内英语资讯: Economic Watch: Inflationary pressures looming in China while economy firms up_时事

国内英语资讯: Economic Watch: Inflationary pressures looming in China while economy firms up

"It still needs more observation," Huang Yiping, central bank advisor and Peking University professor, said, "The CPI, whether rising rapidly or not in the future, influences macroeconomic policies."

Price increases were well retained in China last year. The CPI only increased 2 percent from a year ago, far below the official 3-percent upper limit. The mild consumer inflation, along with a full-year PPI decline, prompted China to implement a prudent monetary policy with an easing bias last year.

Partly due to the overall price changes, the authorities are moving away slightly from their old policy stance.

At the annual Central Economic Work Conference in December, the central leadership decided China's monetary policy will be "prudent and neutral" this year to keep appropriate liquidity levels and avoid large injections.

"A neutral state is neither tight nor loose," Yi Gang, deputy governor of the PBOC, said at an economic forum held last week.

The central bank has already started to guide market rates higher. It has raised the short- and long-term lending rates between banks, a barometer of the overall lending climate, a move widely interpreted as a policy shift.

Beijing-based investment bank CICC expects the PBOC to continue phasing out monetary easing to rein in asset prices and inflation.

Despite the looming risks, analysts dismissed excessive concerns over prices this year, projecting CPI growth to likely to retreat in February and PPI growth to peak in the first quarter.