BEIJING - China will implement a prudent monetary policy in 2011 and ensure consumer prices stay "basically stable," the central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan said Friday.

The People's Bank of China, the central bank, will strive to make the monetary policy more targeted, flexible and effective next year, Zhou said in a New Year's address posted on the central bank website.

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More efforts will also go to pushing forward financial reform, preventing systematic risks in the financial sector and safeguarding financial stability, he said.

With inflation running at a record high, China announced early this month to shift its monetary policy stance from relatively loose to prudent next year.

The proactive fiscal policy, which China implemented in late 2008 to help the national economy through the global financial crisis, would continue in 2011 however.

The consumer price index, a main gauge of China's inflation, surged to a 28-month high of 5.1 percent in November, exceeding the government's target ceiling of 3 percent for this year, pushed up by soaring food prices.