China's central bank on Saturday raised the amount that lenders must hold in reserve for the fifth time this year, taking the ratio for big banks to a record 17.5 percent.

The full percentage point increase in the reserve requirement will be done in two steps, going up by half a percentage point on June 15 and another half on June 25, the People's Bank of China said on its Web site (www.pbc.gov.cn).

The bank last increased the reserve requirements on May 20.

The move was aimed at strengthening China's liquidity management, the statement said.

Financial institutions in areas of the country hit by last month's devastating earthquake will be temporarily exempted from the reserve requirement increase, it added.

Yin Jianfeng, director of the Institute of Finance and Banking with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the move would help the country reduce inflationary pressure and to control excessive investment.

"But the move will not be as effective as the government expected because inflation nationwide mainly resulted from surging production material and food prices," he said. "A simple monetary policy will not help."

The consumer price index (CPI), the main inflation gauge, was up 8.5 percent in April from a year earlier. This was nearly equal to February's 8.7-percent rise, the most since May 1996.

(Xinhua News Agency June 8, 2008)