China NDRC researcher sees interest rate hikes in H2

* Inflation may worsen if China does not raise interest rates -paper

* More reserve ratio increases could hurt China's growth -lawmaker (Add comments from a researcher)

SHANGHAI/BEIJING, June 23 (Reuters) - China's central bank is more likely to raise interest rates in the second half of 2011 than order banks to put more deposits as reserves at the central bank, a senior researcher from a government think-tank said.

Chen Dongqi, deputy chief of the macroeconomics research institute, said Beijing would not relax its monetary policy for fear of a resurgence in inflation and a climb in local government investment.

Chen, whose think-tank falls under the wings of China's top economic planner the National Development and Reform Commission, was quoted as saying so in the official China Securities Journal.

His comments were in line with the paper's front page editorial on Thursday, which argued that China should raise benchmark interest rates soon to tame inflation and aid economic restructuring, even if that hurts growth.

Chen said China's annual economic growth for 2011 would fall between 9-9.5 percent, but he said a hard landing is a remote possibility in the world's second-largest economy.

China's central bank has relied more on raising reserve requirement ratios than interest rate increases so far this year to check inflation.