China's central bank yesterday said it will maintain a "moderately tight" monetary policy in the last quarter of 2007 to curb inflation, limit asset prices and prevent the economy from overheating.

China's economy "still faces prominent problems such as investment growth that's too rapid, a large trade surplus, excessive lending and continued inflation and asset price rises," the People's Bank of China said on its Website yesterday, after a quarterly meeting of its monetary policy committee.

China is trying to slow the pace of consumer-price gains, which surged 6.5 percent in August, the fastest rate in 10 years and more than double the central bank's targeted growth for the full year.

The central bank said yesterday that it will study different factors that caused recent inflation and asset price increases and take "targeted" measures. It didn't elaborate, according to Bloomberg News.

"The central bank may need to raise key interest rates again before year-end to keep pace with rising inflation," Tao Dong, chief Asia economist at Credit Suisse Group in Hong Kong said yesterday. Surging inflation eroded returns of household savings, prompting more people to pour money into stocks and buy houses.

China needs to "closely" monitor the impact of the financial crisis caused by United States subprime loans on the country's economy, the PBOC said yesterday, adding that the damage to China's financial system is "limited" so far.

China, since late July, has asked local authorities to freeze all government-regulated prices until the end of the year, to help curb inflation. The central bank, on September 14, raised key interest rates for the fifth time this year.

The central bank is trying to tame an inflow of cash from record trade surpluses that threatens to stoke inflation and asset bubbles.