China is expected to raise its interest rates soon, and there can be no turning back, Tang Min, chief economist with the China Mission of the the Asian Development Bank (ADB) told Xinhua's newspaper Thursday.

Tang was quoted by the Shanghai Securities News as saying that the overheating of the economy had become more and more obvious in the first half of the year, so the country would surely choose to hike interest rates to solve the problem.

Tang expects interest rates to go up step by step, ruling out the possibility of a once-only big rise, which he said would impact companies and society too drastically.

A rise in interest rates is not sufficient to solve the overheating problem, and the central government must take other measures to restrain investment, he said.

China's economy surged a year-on-year 10.9 percent in the first half of 2006, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed, roaring ahead despite a slew of measures imposed by the government to ease the blistering growth of investment.