ASIAN central banks need to tighten monetary policy further to cope with inflation, a senior Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) official said.

The region's central banks are 'somewhat behind the curve', Mr Teh Kok Peng, president of GIC Special Investments, GIC's hedge fund and private equity arm, said on Wednesday at a forum organised by Japanese brokers Nomura.

He said China's monetary policy was still too loose and predicted the central bank will tighten policy further to make sure core inflation did not rise further.

GIC, one of the biggest sovereign wealth funds with an estimated US$300 billion (S$409 billion) in assets, warned in April that the world could be facing its worst recession in 30 years and said financial markets would be highly volatile.