China ordered banks to hold more of their deposits on reserve with the central bank on Friday in a move aimed at reducing the amount they can lend and tackling stubbornly high inflation in the country.

　　中国央行(PBoC)周五晚间宣布，将上调银行存款准备金率。此举旨在减少各银行可用以放贷的资金总量，以应对国内高居不下的通胀。

　　The central bank raised the required deposit reserve ratio by 0.5 percentage points for all Chinese banks, effective from January 20, bringing the publicly announced ratio to 19 per cent for the country’s main lenders.

　　中国央行宣布，自1月20日起，将中国所有银行的存款准备金率上调0.5个百分点。届时，中国大型金融机构的官方准备金率将升至19%。

　　The requirement was already at its highest level since reserve requirements were introduced in the mid-1980s after the central bank raised the ratio six times last year.

　　去年，中国央行共6次上调准备金率，目前银行存款准备金率已达到上世纪80年代中期该比率施行以来的最高水平。

　　Headline annual consumer price inflation hit a 28-month high of 5.1 per cent in November and, despite some expectations that price rises moderated in December, underlying inflationary pressure in the economy remains strong.

　　去年11月，中国居民消费价格同比上涨5.1%，创下28个月新高。尽管一些人预计12月份通胀将有所缓和，但中国经济仍面临强大的潜在通胀压力。

　　The government has made fighting inflation a key task for this year amid concern rapid price increases could lead to social unrest, as they have on numerous occasions in China’s recent history.

　　由于担心物价快速上涨可能会引发社会动荡，中国政府已将抗击通胀当作今年的一项关键任务——中国近代史上曾多次出现通胀引发社会动荡的情况。

　　Food prices disproportionately affect poorer citizens, who spend a bigger portion of their income on daily necessities and they have been the main driver of inflation, rising 11.7 per cent from a year earlier in November, according to official figures.

　　由于穷人生活必需品开支占收入的比例更高，食品价格上涨对穷人的影响尤为严重——食品价格也一直是推动通胀的主要因素。官方数据显示，去年11月，中国食品价格同比上涨11.7%。

　　China will celebrate the Chinese New Year in early February and inflation usually accelerates in the weeks leading up to the festival as citizens rush to buy delicacies and gifts for the family holiday.

　　中国将在2月初迎来农历新年，在春节前几周，由于民众争相为这个阖家团圆的节日采购美食和礼物，通胀往往会提速。

　　A senior official from the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s powerful state planning agency, on Thursday signalled Beijing’s willingness to impose fresh price controls if inflation did not moderate in the coming months.

　　中国权势很大的国家规划机构——发改委(NDRC)——的一位高级官员周四发出信号，称如果未来几个月通胀仍得不到缓解，中国政府将出台新的价格管控措施。

　　Zhou Wangjun, vice-director of the NDRC pricing section, said Beijing would likely announce new policies to combat inflation if prices accelerated in the first quarter.

　　发改委价格司副司长周望军表示，如果今年一季度物价水平出现较大幅度的上升，中国将考虑出台进一步的调控措施以应对通胀。

　　As well as raising the reserve requirement six times last year, Beijing also lifted benchmark interest rates twice, in October and on Christmas day.

　　去年，中国政府除了6次上调存款准备金率以外，还分别在10月份和圣诞节当日两次上调了基准利率。

　　Chinese banks lent Rmb9,600bn in 2009, more than double the amount of new loans extended the previous year, and the full-year total for 2010 was roughly the same when off-balance sheet lending was considered, analysts say.

　　2009年，中国各银行共发放贷款9.6万亿元人民币，新增贷款总额较上年增加了一倍以上。分析师表示，若计入表外贷款，中国2010年全年放贷总额与上年基本持平。

　　With the economy already flush with liquidity, Chinese banks lent around Rmb500bn in just the first week of January, more than the Rmb480.7bn total new lending for all of December, according to Chinese media reports.

　　据中国官方媒体报道，尽管中国经济已出现流动性过剩，但仅在今年的第一周，中国各银行就发放了约5000亿元人民币贷款，高于去年12月全月4807亿元人民币的新增贷款总额。

　　The scramble to extend credit at the start of the year is an annual event in China thanks to a system of loan quotas that encourage banks to postpone loans from the final months of the previous year and book them all in the first quarter.

　　由于中国的贷款额度制度鼓励银行在上年最后几个月推迟放贷，而积攒到来年第一季度再发放，各银行在新年伊始争相放贷，是中国年年上演的一幕。

　　“Today’s announcement [of the reserve rate hike] will be seen in part as a response to the rapid lending reported in the first week of January,” said Mark Williams, senior China economist at Capital Economics.

　　资本经济(Capital Economics)中国问题高级经济学家马克•威廉姆斯(Mark Williams)表示：“今天宣布（上调存款准备金率），在某种程度上将被视为政府对银行在新年第一周迅速放贷的一种回应。”