"Aside from continuing to support steady economic growth, future monetary policy will focus on guarding against macroeconomic risks, especially avoiding rapid growth in companies' leverage, and will also consider the impact of increased loans on the cost of living and real estate prices," Ma Jun told the official newspaper of the People's Bank of China.

Chinese policymakers are trying to channel more credit into the economy to bolster growth but are on guard against fuelling sharp gains in the property market and fanning asset bubbles.

Signs the economy is picking up has given the central bank room to keep its policy powder dry for now so it has the ammunition later to cope with any possible shocks from domestic economic restructuring and expected U.S. interest rate rises, policy insiders have told Reuters.

(Reporting by Sue-Lin Wong; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)