After issuing a series of recent calls for banks to moderate their lending activity, the central bank took action Tuesday, hiking the minimum amount of money that banks must keep in reserve for the first time in more than a year.

Earlier in the day, it raised the interest rate on its one-year treasury bills and last week raised the rate on its three-month bills, increasing borrowing costs.

The widely expected fiscal tightening moves came a day after state media reported banks had extended a massive 600 billion yuan (88 billion dollars) in loans in the first week of January.

The People's Bank of China did not give a reason for its moves but analysts said they showed the government intended to rein in a credit expansion that has led to concerns over inflation, economic overheating and a rash of bad loans.

"This series of moves by the central bank provides a clear sign that policy makers are following through on their pledge to guide credit in order to pre-empt rising inflation and avoid asset price bubbles," Jing Ulrich, an economist with J.P. Morgan, said in a research note.

The central bank said in a one-line notice on its website that the deposit reserve ratio for commercial banks would be hiked by 50 basis points.

The ratio is the minimum amount of money that banks must keep in reserves and is considered a way to limit the amount of money available for lending.

State-run Xinhua news agency said it was the first time the ratio had been adjusted since late 2008 and the first increase in the requirement since June 2008.

The increase will take effect Monday, the central bank said.

It did not say what the current requirement was but state media reports said it was a minimum 14.5 percent for large banks, which would rise next week to 15 percent.

The increase would not apply to small and medium-sized banks, whose requirements were currently at 13.5 percent, according to media reports.

Earlier Tuesday the central bank sold 20 billion yuan worth of one-year bills at a yield of 1.8434, a rise of eight basis points and the first hike since August.

The explosion in bank lending this month was larger than the combined 547.8 billion yuan in new loans given out in October and November and has "set off alarms" in Beijing, the Economic Information Daily reported Monday.

China adopted what it called a "moderately loose" monetary policy over the past year to keep the economy growing amid the global downturn and early last year even urged banks to pump up lending.

But after the amount of new loans subsequently surged, the government in recent months reversed course and called for "reasonable" lending as inflation fears rose.

The consumer price index, a key gauge of inflation, rose in November after an almost year-long bout of deflation.

A research note by Citigroup economists on Tuesday said, however, that they expected interest rates to stay on hold until later this year, noting that "inflation is still relatively low."

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