BEIJING, Sept 15 (Reuters) - China’s new home prices grew at their slowest pace in eight months in August, official data showed on Wednesday, as a slew of measures to cool the country’s red-hot property market took a toll on demand in the world’s second-largest economy. Average new home prices in China’s 70 major cities grew 0.2% in August from a month earlier, slowing from a 0.3% gain in July, according to Reuters calculations based on data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Compared with a year earlier, China’s new home prices grew 4.2% in August, down from a 4.6% increase in July. Authorities have stepped up efforts to contain home prices and limit leverage in the property market this year, introducing measures such as caps on property developers’ debt ratio and limits on banks’ lending to the sector. (Reporting by Liangping Gao and Ryan Woo; Editing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa)