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Stable loan growth expected for China in March

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-04-01 15:21

BEIJING: China's new lending in March was expected to reach about the same level as February's 700.1 billion yuan ($102.5 billion), the Shanghai Securities News reported Thursday.

"Judging from loans our bank issued this month, new lending in March would remain more or less the same as last month," the newspaper quoted a credit officer from a major State-owned bank as saying.

Announcements made by high officials from other banks pointed to the same trend which saw no remarkable fluctuations in March's lending growth, said the newspaper.

Chinese banks extended 700.1 billion yuan in new loans in February, about half the value of January and 371.4 billion yuan less than total loans extended in the same month in 2009.

Premier Wen Jiabao said earlier this month that China would slash its bank lending target in 2010 to 7.5 trillion yuan, after new loans nearly doubled in 2009 from the previous year to 9.59 trillion yuan.

Zhu Min, deputy governor of China's central bank, said earlier last week in Hong Kong that China's lending growth would see a further slowdown in March, which would help prevent excess liquidity and asset bubbles.