SteelOrbis Shanghai
The Central Bank of China announced to raise the one-year deposit interest rate by 27 basis points to 4.14 percent and the lending rate by 18 basis points to 7.47 percent as of December 21, 2007.
The Central Bank indicates that this move is to prevent the economy from overheating and the structural price rises from evolving into evident inflation.
Since the beginning of 2007, the People's Bank of China has increased the benchmark interest rate for six times and raised the deposit reserve ratio for ten times. According to the current situations, the tightening policy has already exerted certain impacts on the real economy. Restricted by the tight capital control, the finished steel market showed softness on a negative trend.