China Inflation Over 3.5% May Prompt Rate Rise: NDRC Chen

China may need to raise interest rates should gains in the consumer-price index stay at more than 3.5 percent for three months, a senior researcher affiliated with the country’s top planning agency said.

“In theory, if CPI remains above 3.5 percent for three months, there should be an interest-rate movement,” Chen Dongqi, the deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission’s macroeconomic research institute, said in an interview yesterday after a speech at Tsinghua University in Beijing. “But it also can be decided by authorities’ own judgment.”