Malaysia: Asia’s interest rate hawk

India has raised official interest rates nine times in a year, and China four times in six months, but little Malaysia’s 25 basis point rise may be a better guide to how serious Asia’s inflation problem really is.  Zeti Akhtar Aziz, the long-serving governor of Bank Negara, celebrated her reappointment for a further five years by announcing on Thursday that interest rates would go up to 3 per cent, backed up by an increase in the reserve requirement for commercial from 2 per cent to 3 per cent.  The governor, who has been in office since May 2000, surprised global markets by hiking interest rates in March 2010 ahead of other Asian central banks, effectively firing the starting gun for the tightening cycle that has dominated regional monetary policy ever since.