China announced plans to raise banks' reserve requirement ratios for the third time this year. The Wall Street Journal reported Beijing planned to hike the reserve requirements by half a percentage point, in what may be the beginning of a more aggressive approach to curb liquidity and control investment growth. The hike will take effect April 16 and raise the ratio for commercial banks to 10.5%. It follows several interest rate hikes and investment curbs on a variety of industries over the past year. The People's Bank of China said on its website that it would "use various tools to strengthen management of liquidity in the banking system, maintain liquidity around suitable levels, and prevent overly rapid growth of credit." Economists expect similar hikes at least once every quarter this year, the newspaper reported.
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