Head of China's central bank Zhou Xiaochuan made it very clear on June 27 that China's interest rate was "in position" currently.

He made these remarks in Basel, Switzerland where he is attending a meeting of central bankers at the Bank for International Settlements.

At present China holds the one-year deposit rate at 2.25 percent and the one-year lending rate at 5.58 percent.

Zhou said that the interest rates are at right level for the time being by reason of the rising crude oil and raw material prices weighing on the inflation, although the economic growth remains robust and the inflation rate is down.

Zhou thinks the future interest rates level depends on the crude oil price and are highly correlated with the grain yield this year in China. He wants more observation on the trend of the oil price and the risks brought about by the trend before any decision can be made on the interest rates.

China��s economy is rising soundly, but some structural reform is necessary to adjust the growth of some sectors, said Zhou.

He mentioned that the three large giant banks have been restructured and their assets structure has been readjusted. He thinks the reform of commercial banks go better than expected.

Zhou made no comment on the issue of RMB. However, he reiterated on June 26 that any measures making yuan revaluation possible would be progressive.

Talking about the US Congress pressing China on RMB revaluation, Zhou affirmed that China did not care pressure, but would get well prepared for the reform which would be pushed forward in a gradual way.

He also stressed that China had to pay more attention to the pace of relevant reform. He did not see much imbalance in China's current account.

By People's Daily Online