China's first increase on Tuesday since June 2008 in the ratio of bank deposits that must be held in reserve was meant to stabilise loan growth but keep overall policy pro-growth, a Chinese central bank official said.

"Our monetary policy stance is still appropriately loose and the move is intended to use quantitative tools for flexible fine-tuning," an official at the People's Bank of China told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The hike in the reserve requirement ratio by a half percentage point was sooner than many economists had anticipated and was interpreted as a pre-emptive move against inflation.