China has room for further interest rate cuts in the face of the global financial crisis, a central bank official said Monday.

The benchmark deposit and loan interest rates have been reduced for five times since last September and the room for further adjustment is "smaller but still exists", said Su Ning, vice governor of the People's Bank of China.

There's also "a quite big room for cutting the banks' reserve requirement ratio", Su told Xinhua on the sidelines of the annual sessions of the country's lawmakers and political advisors.

"We still have plenty of space in monetary policy maneuvre," said Su, also a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the top political advisory body.

He said the central bank will better carry out the moderately easy monetary policy "by various means including open market operations, reserve requirement ratio and interest rate adjustment".

(Xinhua News Agency March 9, 2009)