It would be reasonable for China to raise interest rates in the first quarter because price pressure tends to be high for seasonal reasons during the opening months of the year, a central bank adviser said on Wednesday.

Li Daokui, an academic adviser to the People's Bank of China, also told reporters at a forum that Beijing does want to control lending by banks, but that setting a full-year credit quota by itself was insufficient.

In the past, China used loan quotas to keep a handle on lending. This year, the central bank has pledged to refine that system with regular calibrations of reserve requirements and capital ratios targeted to individual lenders.

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