China may refrain from raising banks' reserve requirement ratios (RRR) this month and in August as capital inflows lose steam alongside a decline in the amount of maturing bills and repos, the China Securities Journal reported on Wednesday.

The People's Bank of China has set a pace of raising the RRR once per month this year, but the newspaper said in a front-page commentary that the pattern is set to change as the chances of an increase in July diminish.

"The possibility of using the tool of bank reserve requirement ratio in August is also relatively small," it said.

The newspaper does not represent the view of the central bank and has a mixed record in predicting past policy moves.

Capital flows into China are expected to slow in August while the amount of central bank bills and repos maturing could fall, reducing the need for the central bank to raise the RRR to mop up excessive liquidity, the newspaper said.

But the newspaper said the central bank may resume RRR rises if capital inflows rebound.

A total of 372 billion yuan ($52.5 billion) in Chinese central bank bills and repos are due to mature in July, down about 40 percent from last month, according to Reuters calculations.

Investors are closely watching for any signs of policy fine-tuning after the central bank raised interest rates five times and lifted banks' reserve requirement ratio nine times since October to try to wrestle inflation under control.

President Hu Jintao said recently that the government would continue to put fighting inflation -- which was at a three-year high of 6.4 percent in June -- at the top of its policy agenda.

Many analysts expect the central bank to lean more on interest rates to fight inflation in coming months, partly because they see limited room for higher bank reserve ratios, which for big banks stand at a record 21.5 percent.