BEIJING, April 27: China’s central bank will maintain interest rates at current levels in the near future while pushing ahead with some monetary reforms, the official Xinhua news agency quoted the bank as saying on Saturday.

According to the current domestic economic and price situation, for the near future, yuan interest rates will be basically kept stable, Xinhua quoted the monetary policy committee of the People’s Bank of China as saying.

At the same time we will press on with reform of interest rates being decided by the market and also expanding floating interest rates for loans to small and medium enterprises, it said. No further details were available.

In February, China cut yuan interest rates for the first time in nearly three years to help spur economic growth.

The central bank has encouraged commercial banks to boost lending to small firms, home buyers and consumers but has in the past admitted that many smaller companies have faced difficulties in obtaining bank loans.

China’s economy grew a surprising 7.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2002, bouncing back from its worst quarterly growth in two years and beating expectations of about 7.3 per cent.—Reuters