From Bloomberg News:
People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said he has no “immediate” plan to raise borrowing costs and will study the effects of April’s surprise increase before deciding whether to tighten more.
“We are still monitoring the results of the last interest rate increase, and there won’t be any further measures immediately,” Zhou told reporters before the start of a banking forum in Beijing today. The bank unexpectedly raised its benchmark one-year lending rate on April 28 for the first time in 19 months.
Zhou wants to cool a surge in lending and investment that the World Bank says raises the risk of a sudden slowdown in the world’s fourth-largest economy. Excessive spending on factories and real estate is driving raw-material prices higher, leading to pressure on inflation to quicken, the bank said May 31.[Full Text]
