The People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, said the quarter-percentage-point increase lifts the one-year lending rate to 6.31 percent and the rate for one-year bank deposits to 3.25 percent.
The series of rate hikes reflects concerns about overheating and excess liquidity in the Chinese economy that are driving up prices, especially of food.
China’s consumer prices rose 4.9 percent in February, driven by an 11 percent jump in politically sensitive food costs that account for half or more of household spending among the millions of Chinese who have seen little benefit from three decades of economic reform.
Beijing is using gradual hikes in interest rates and bank reserve levels to stanch a flood of lending that helped China rebound quickly from the global financial crisis but now is fueling price rises.
Analysts say a bank lending boom is partly to blame for the overheating, prompting measures to curb the credit boom that is pushing up real estate and stock prices.
Those moves appear to be gaining traction, although economists say more rate hikes are needed and it will be months before the effect is seen.
The central bank said bank lending in February fell 26 percent from the same month last year to 535.6 billion yuan ($81.5 billion).
China’s banks lent just over 1 trillion yuan ($153 billion) in January.
That was after their 2010 lending rose to nearly 8 trillion yuan ($1.2 trillion), overshooting the official target of 7.5 trillion yuan.
Analysts say Chinese leaders acted too slowly in heading off inflation after they deflected the 2008 crisis and growth quickly returned to normal levels.
The government has set a 4 percent inflation target this year but private sector analysts say consumer prices could rise by up to 6 percent.
