China Raises Interest Rates 3rd Time in 2011

China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), is raising the benchmark one-year borrowing and lending rates for banks by 25 basis points effective Thursday.

This is the third interest-rate hike this year, in addition to six hikes of bank reserve ratio requirements, all in an effort to tame soaring inflation rates. The latest inflation data suggests the rate for June may even exceed six percent when it is released July 15.

May’s CPI rise of 5.5 percent over the same month last year had been a 34-month high. The central government’s inflation ceiling had been set at 4 percent.