BEIJING, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- China is raising the interest rates for the sixth time this year in a fresh move to cool a red-hot economy expected to expand 11.5 percent for the full year and to battle inflation that has climbed to an 11-year high. China would raise the one-year deposit interest rate by 27 basis points to 4.14 percent and the lending rate by 18 basis points to 7.47 percent as of Friday, the central bank said in a statement posted on its website. The move, which aimed to "prevent the economy from overheating and the structural price rises from evolving into evident inflation", followed the "tight" monetary policy for 2008 made by the Central Economic Work Conference held earlier this month. The key economic meeting decided to shift China's monetary policy from a "prudent" stance, which the country had followed for the last 10 years, to "tightening". Different from the five previous such moves, the central bank lowered the interest rate for sight deposits by nine basis points, to encourage people to put more money in the bank for a fixed period, rather than having it readily available for stock or property investment. "Lower rates for sight deposits and unequal rises in deposit and lending rates will narrow the rate gap between credits and deposits and help China check excessive credit growth," said Guo Tianyong, a professor at the Central University of Finance and Economics. With the country still facing inflationary pressure, the central bank lifted the rates to relieve the public's expectations for inflation, a spokesman with the central bank said. Rising food prices, especially pork, the country's meat staple, pushed China's inflation rate to a new 11-year high of 6.9 percent in November. The inflation rate for the first 11 months wa