Central banks rush to cut rates, but China stands firm

China standing pat

Although more central banks from emerging economies are likely to join the latest wave of interest rate cuts, economists didn't think the People's Bank of China, China's central bank, would follow suit in the near term.

Feng Guo, senior economist of the Asia/Pacific Department of Washington-based IIF, told Xinhua China's first quarter gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 7.7 percent year on year was not very low, still above the government's 7.5 percent target. But inflation was the major concern for the PBOC as China's Consumer Price Index rose 2.4 percent year-on-year in April.

Guo also believed yen's depreciation had limited impact on China's economy as the Bank of Japan's monetary easing was less powerful than the Fed and the yen was far less important than the US dollar as an international reserve currency.

"The importance of exports to Japan has declined for China over the past 10 years. Japan was China's fifth largest export market in 2012," Guo said.

He noted the direct competition between manufacturing industries in China and Japan was also limited as Japan mainly exported high-end and value-added products.

However, interest rate differentials would become bigger between China and other major economies which cut interest rates recently, attracting more speculative capital into China and putting the yuan under further appreciation pressure, Guo said.