BEIJING, May 11 -- China needs to cut its high savings rate to boost consumption and reduce the trade surplus, People's Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said Saturday.

"The government has pledged to boost consumption and cut the surpluses in trade and capital accounts," Zhou said at the Lujiazui Forum 2008 in Shanghai. That "requires that we reduce the current high savings ratio," he said. China's trade surplus is pumping cash into the world's fastest-growing major economy, threatening to stoke inflation that jumped to an 11-year high of 8 percent in the first quarter. April's trade gap was about 16.8 billion U.S. dollars, according to figures derived from Ministry of Commerce data released on Friday. China has conflicting targets, the central banker said. "On the one hand, we need to boost consumption to adjust the economic growth structure, but on the other hand we also need to prevent excessive demand from fueling inflation," Zhou said. "We need to balance those targets so that more savings are spent, while the spending doesn't add too much pressure for inflation." Flexible markets The household savings rate needs to fall, Zhou said. Zhou's remarks were made to more than 300 government off