China announced Thursday it was cutting interest rates for the second time in a month, the latest effort to boost growth in the world's second-biggest economy.

The changes, which take effect from Friday, will see the benchmark one-year lending rate drop by 0.31 percentage points and the deposit rate fall by 0.25 percentage points, the central bank said in a statement on its website.

All corresponding deposit and loan interest rates would be adjusted accordingly, the People's Bank of China, or central bank, said.

The cut will effectively adjust the one-year deposit rate to 3.0 percent and the one-year loan rate to 6.0 percent, the bank said.

The central bank did not immediately provide a reason for the rate cut, but the government has been taking a range of measures to boost an economy that has started to slow.

China cut interest rates on June 7, the first move down in more than three years.

(AFP)