People's Bank of China announced on the night of April 5 that it would raise financial institutions' benchmark oneyear deposit rate and one-year lending rate both by 0.25 percentage points from April 6 to 3.25%and 6.31%respectively. This is the Central Bank's second hike this year and the fourth since last year.Insiders regard the mounting inflationary pressure and the continuous negative interest rate as the primary causes for the hike.'The timing of the hike does not surprise the market expectation.In a bid to rein in inflation and a looming asset price bubble,it is very necessary for the Central Bank to decisively raise interest rates,'said Cao Honghui, Director of the Financial Markets Department of the Institute of Finance&Banking under the Chinese
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