Interest rates rise to check growth

China’s central bank said it was raising key interest rates today by more than a quarter percentage point in a move to cool torrid economic growth -- the fourth increase in a year.

One-year deposit and lending benchmark rates will go up 0.27 percentage point, the People’s Bank of China said. That would raise lending rates to 6.39% and deposit rates to 2.79%.

The rate increase is the latest in a series of measures China’s leaders have taken to slow an economy that they fear is running at an unsustainable pace with four years of double-digit economic growth, largely driven by investment and exports.