The People’s Bank of China said it would raise the reserve requirement ratio for commercial banks by 50 basis points to 16%, the South China Morning Post reported. The announcement was made just hours after the National Bureau of Statistics said that inflation had hit 8.3% in March and comes almost one month after the last reserve ratio hike. The increase will take effect on April 25 and is aimed at, "continuing to implement the tightening monetary policy, to strengthen the regulation of liquidity in the banking system and ushering in a reasonable increase in loans," the central bank said. Analysts suggest that further increases are likely.