Jan. 8 – China’s central bank hiked interest rates on three-month treasury bills by around about 4.04 basis points for the first time since August in an effort seen to temper the overheating economy.

The yield on three-month treasury bills were changed from 1.3280 percent yield to 1.3684 percent. The move led to a hike in offshore non-deliverable interest rate swaps (NDIRS) up across the board and hit a range of commodities, reports Reuters. Offshore one-year NDIRS reached a 16-month intraday high of 2.19 percent, up 14 basis points from 2.05 percent on Tuesday and the 10-year NDIRS climbed by as much as 14 basis points to 4.39 percent.

Beijing’s sudden yield adjustment fed speculation that it may increase interest rates further and lower China’s massive demand for steel, copper and other resources.

Analysts told Reuters that it may be more of an effort by the People’s Bank of China to even out the flow of liquidity into the system.”We don’t read much into this as this is a one-off case,” said Chris Leung, an economist with DBS in Hong Kong. “It is still too early to talk about a withdrawal.”