Savings high, mortgage loan growth slows in Shanghai

By Li Zengxin (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-01-10 17:40

Newly increased renminbi deposits at domestic and foreign financial institutions in Shanghai reached 415.2 billion yuan ($47.1 billion) in 2007, 112.4 billion yuan more than the growth in 2006, according to a monetary credit performance report released by the Shanghai headquarters of the central bank yesterday.

Of the total, bigger fluctuations were seen in deposits at Chinese financial institutions. In November and December, increased deposits totaled 188.5 billion yuan, accounting for 52.3 percent of the total for the whole year. The Shanghai headquarters of the People's Bank of China pointed out that the difference between new deposits in October and November hit 200 billion yuan, and the last two months saw the biggest increase in deposits.

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Bank analysts said that higher bank cash flows should be mostly attributed to investors' subscriptions for new stocks. In the last three months, PetroChina, China Railway Group and China Pacific Insurance Group each froze over 2 trillion yuan in their own initial public offering on the domestic stock market.

In December, new deposits at Shanghai's domestic and overseas financial institutions reached 106.8 billion yuan, a record high growth. New yuan deposits at domestic financial institutions were 94.5 billion yuan, up 81.2 billion yuan from December 2006, a record for single-month yuan deposits growth. Of the new yuan deposits, savings amounted to 56.2 billion yuan, the highest month in nine years, including 34.8 billion yuan in fixed-term deposit accounts.

It is noteworthy that deposits by securities firms from client trading clearance at Chinese financial institutions decreased by 183.4 billion yuan.

In the meantime, residents' willingness to hold US dollar deposits diminished thanks to a constant yuan appreciation. Last year, foreign currency deposits at domestic financial institutions were $2.4 billion less than the previous year, including a $1.5 billion decrease in savings accounts.

Affected by the tightening mortgage loan policy, the new personal housing loans increased only 1.6 billion yuan in December last year, 3.4 billion yuan less than the mortgage loans added up in November.

However, for the whole year, personal consumption loans surged by 43.1 billion yuan, including 37.6 billion yuan in mortgage loans, accounting for 87.3 percent of the total personal consumption loan increase. Of the mortgage loans, 21 billion yuan was issued on new houses while 16.6 billion yuan was on pre-owned ones.

On a quarterly basis, the new mortgage loans showed a reversed "U" curve, the report said. The new loans were 935 million yuan, 5.9 billion yuan, 19.1 billion yuan and 11.7 billion yuan respectively in the four quarters. Affected by tightened loan policy, a weakened real estate market and paybacks in advance by home buyers, the growth slowed in the last few months.

Foreign banks in Shanghai leapt foreword in terms of new deposits. The 11 overseas legal-person banks, six of which are currently allowed to conduct a full range of renminbi services, achieved a yuan deposit increase of 55.1 billion yuan last year, almost double the 2006 growth.

In the fourth quarter, deposit increases at foreign banks in Shanghai reached 32.2 billion yuan, accounting for 58.4 percent of the whole year's total. In December alone, 17.5 billion yuan deposits were added, a new record for foreign banks in terms of yuan deposit growth. On the other hand, foreign currency deposits increased by $1.5 billion, $677 million less than that for 2006.

Loan growth was also fast. Last year, new yuan loans at foreign banks were 83.3 billion yuan, up 34.8 billion yuan from 2006, accounting for 31.8 percent of the total increase in yuan loans in Shanghai.

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