China’s central bank said Wednesday that higher reserve requirements for 20 rural cooperative banks will expire at the end of November, a signal that Beijing may be gradually returning to a looser monetary stance, Reuters reported. The required ratio will revert back to 16.5% of total lending, down from the current 20%, the People’s Bank of China said in an emailed statement released by its Hangzhou branch. The central bank raised the reserve requirement for these banks by 50 basis points on November 20, 2010, for a one-year period. Regulators raised the reserve requirements for China’s largest banks to 21.5% in August to counter inflation, which slowed to 5.5% in September after peaking at 6.5% in July.
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