China likely to avoid hard-landing: Zhou

The Chinese economy is unlikely to experience a hard-landing and could weather a drop in the value of the US dollar, the head of China's central bank said in a magazine interview.
"There is a high probability that we can avoid (a hard landing) but there is uncertainty in the world," People's Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said in an interview with Emerging Markets magazine released on the sidelines of a meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank.
He also said a rise in Chinese consumer prices over the last four months was not indicative of "a medium-term trend of rising inflation."
The central bank raised interest rates for the third time in less than a year on Saturday in an effort to keep the Chinese economy from overheating.
"It is our consideration to continue to adjust our structural policy to encourage consumption," Zhou said in the magazine interview.
He said a decline in the value of the US dollar "would not impact much on the Chinese economy." However, he said a sharp dollar drop and a US recession could reduce Chinese exports to the United States and would be "negative for Chinese growth."