RMB loans increased by 413.8 billion in February, 264.7 billion more than during the same period of last year, according to the latest financial statistics released by the People's Bank of China on Monday.

At the end of February, the deposit balance of both RMB and foreign currencies in financial institutions was 35.8 trillion yuan, a 15.5 percent year-on-year increase. The deposit balance increased to 527.1 billion yuan, 92.9 billion more than last year. Residential deposits increased by 91.2 billion yuan, to 583.8 billion yuan. The wage increases and bonuses people received during Spring Festival contributed to the deposit increase. Migrant workers also receive a large back-pay at this time, pushing up deposit rates

Blogs in China to be more heavily regulated

"The prevalence of information dissemination via online mediums such as blogs has caught the attention of a number of government departments. Related authorities will begin regulating blogs according to various classifications," said Long Xinmin, deputy of the Beijing delegation to the National People's Congress and Director of the Administration of Press and Publication.

Long said, "Under the premise of fully protecting the freedom of speech, we will safeguard the healthy, active environment of internet publishing. We should bear in mind that government regulations are facing new challenges in this era of a rapidly developing internet." He admitted that it has been a new challenge for the government to deal with the spread of things like internet blogging.

"There is no doubt that blogging was one of the major developments of 2006. The ease of blogging has provided writers and novelists with a platform from which to speak, and for stars and other people to release their news. This new method of disseminating information has improved people's daily lives and opened up a new channel for interpersonal communication." Long Xinmin, first confirmed the positive influence of blogs. However, from a government regulatory perspective he believes that, "the various content and forms of blogs create difficulties for the government in classifying and regulating them."

Long said that at present, the Administration of Press and Publication is working with other departments to formulate regulations for the internet. Once decided, these regulations will help monitor online publishing such as web books and newspapers.

By People's Daily Online