Chinese central bank's decision to raise interest rates last month signals that the Chinese government has begun to regulate the economy by financial means rather than simply by administrative measures, said Lou Jiwei, China's Vice Finance Minister, here Wednesday.

The interest rate hike is not only an adjustment of the rates; it represents a change in China's attitude towards regulating its economy, he said at the Eighth CEO Forum held from Nov. 9 to 10.

Although China has adjusted its interest rates several times inthe past decade, including attempts to bring down high inflation rates in 1993 through banking, foreign exchange rate and taxation reforms, China normally does not regulate economic growth by financial measures, he said.

The People's Bank of China, China's central bank, decided to raise the benchmark interest rates by 0.27 percentage point on one-year yuan loans to 5.58 percent and the rate on one-year deposits to 2.25 percent.

The central bank also gave commercial banks more autonomy by raising the ceiling on lending rates, he said.