China rate decisions depend on own econ data - Zhou

BEIJING (Reuters) - China will mainly consider the country's own economic data when deciding whether to cut interest rates further and will not be influenced much by the recent U.S. rate cut, central bank chief Zhou Xiaochuan said on Thursday.

The Federal Reserve's radical step on Tuesday of slashing its key interest rate to between zero and 0.25 percent prompted expectations that Asian central banks could be pushed to follow with more rate cuts of their own.

Asked whether the U.S. rate cut would add more pressure for the People's Bank of China (PBOC) to follow suit, Zhou said:

"It's not certain that we have much of a relationship with that. We will do things according to our own data."

He was speaking to reporters after a ceremony to commemorate the 30th anniversary of China's reform and opening.

China has cut interest rates four times since mid-September to counter an economic slowdown, in addition to launching a 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) stimulus package and lending further policy support to the property sector. [nPEK209153]

Some analysts expect further rate cuts as soon as this month, after November economic data showed exports shrank from a year earlier for the first time in many years and that factory output growth slumped to a record low.

Zhou added that the fall in annual consumer price inflation in November, to 2.4 percent from 4 percent in October, was bigger than most people had expected. He said he expected consumer price inflation to continue to ease.

Zhou said earlier this week that China would face pressure to cut rates until the middle of 2009 and that any decision would depend on the rate of inflation. [nLG524077]

(Reporting by Simon Rabinovitch; Writing by Jason Subler, Editing by Jacqueline Wong)