Chinese Bank Puts Huge Loans in Fixed Assets

Home>>Business

Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, January 08, 2002

Chinese Bank Puts Huge Loans in Fixed Assets

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) granted loans of 162 billion yuan last year to the fixed asset sector, setting a record high.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) granted loans of 162 billion yuan last year to the fixed asset sector, setting a record high.

A spokesman for the ICBC said that in 2001 the bank's fixed asset loans were 20 billion yuan higher than the previous year, giving powerful support to infrastructure construction and the technological advancement of businesses.

He said that last year's fixed asset loans had a quicker turnover rate, cutting the turnover time on average by 1.3 years compared to the previous five years, which helped improve loan efficiency.

In addition, the proportion of loans to infrastructure projectsincreased sharply. The transportation, power and telecommunications sectors accounted for over 65 percent of the loans and were worth 106.7 billion yuan.

The spokesdman also said that the non-performing rate of fixed asset loans at the end of 2001 was 3.5 percentage points lower than at the end of 2000, and non-performing loans accounted for only 0.2 percent of the over 300 billion yuan of fixed asset loansgranted since 1999.