Monetary policy likely to remain tight, says CICC

BEIJING - China's monetary policy will remain tight for the rest of the year but the risk of a "hard landing" for the economy is small, the top-ranked brokerage China International Capital Corp (CICC) said on Friday.

"Economic growth has started to slow down but inflation remains high, which means that monetary policy will remain tight in the short run," said Peng Wensheng, the chief economist at CICC, at a news briefing.

Peng expected the People's Bank of China to raise the benchmark interest rate another one or two times this year and for inflation to peak in the third quarter before falling back to 4 percent in the fourth.