The central bank cut interest rates for the third time in six months on Sunday to ward off the continuing downward pressure on economic growth.

The People's Bank of China said on its website that it will lower its benchmark one-year lending rate by 25 basis points to 5.1 percent from Monday. The benchmark deposit rate will be cut by the same amount to 2.25 percent.

The interest rate cuts are to be accompanied by deposit rate liberalization. The upper limit of the floating band of deposit rates for financial institutions is being increased to 1.5 times the benchmark from the previous 1.3 percent, a move toward the completely free rate that has been promised before the end of the year by the central bank's governor.