Central bank chief warns on inflation

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With no mention of Chinese banks setting their own interest rates, China's central bank governor, Zhou Xiaochuan, said the country should remain on high alert, for inflation.

He said the bank will adjust its monetary policy, to stabilize prices.

Zhou cites February's CPI reading rebounded to a 10-month high of 3.2 percent.

He attributed the higher-than-expected index partly to the lower comparison base last year.

Month-on-month, February's CPI gained 1.1 percent from January.

China aims to keep this year's consumer price growth at around 3.5 percent, lower than the 4-percent target for 2012 but higher than last year's actual inflation of 2.6 percent.

PRUDENT MONETARY POLICY

Zhou also said China's monetary policy in 2013 will remain prudent.

He said China aims to keep its broad money supply, known as M2 - which covers all cash and deposits in circulation - growing at no more than 13 percent this year, to meet its inflation target.

SOUNDBITE (CHINESE) ZHOU XIAOCHUAN, Central bank governor:

"The 13 percent growth of M2 is smaller than that of last year, which indicates that the government puts more emphasis on keeping stable consumer prices."

China implemented a relatively loose monetary policy in 2008, to cope with the global financial crisis.

By the end of 2010, the monetary policy tightened as the economy recovered.

HOME PRICE CONTROL

Zhou also said policies to cool home prices could strengthen...

Including higher down payment rates and higher interests rates for home loans.

Zhou said the policies will mainly focused on curbing demand - namely from speculators, but will accommodate changes based on consumer price index and production material prices.

"CURRENCY WAR" WATCH

The central bank officials are also on alert for the quantitative easing policy adopted by major world economies...

Which saw the value of other currencies like the Yen and the Dollar fall, against the Yuan.. Making Chinese exports, more expensive.

Yi Gang, deputy governor of the central bank, said they are closely watching the movements of other countries closely:

SOUNDBITE (CHINESE) YI GANG, Deputy governor of the central bank:

"The topic has been discussed on the latest round of G20 talks. And the G20 members have reached consensus on the issue. That monetary policy should primarily serve as a tool for domestic economies, and a competition of currency depreciation should be avoided, along with any other form of protectionism."

Yi said China's central bank will evaluate the impact of this at home and respond accordingly.