Demand for Bank Loans RisingChina's financial sector continued its momentum of smooth operation in the first five months of this year, with banking loans increasing at a faster step and corporate deposits registering marked increases.Statistics released yesterday by the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, show by the end of May, the outstanding amount of loans by all financial institutions stood at 9.62 trillion yuan (US$1.23 trillion), up 13.9 per cent from the same period last year in constant terms. At the end of May, the outstanding amount of broad money was 12.41 trillion yuan (US$1.49 trillion), up 12.7 per cent from the same period last year but down one percentage point from the previous month, caused mainly by the downturn in residents' deposits. According to the statistics, at the end of May the outstanding amount of residents' deposits was 6.22 trillion yuan (US$752.22 billion), up 5.5 per cent from the same period last year but down 1.6 percentage points from the previous month as more residents drew money from banks to invest in the stock market and treasury bonds. The outstanding amount of narrow money was 4.65 trillion yuan (US$562.2 billion), up 22.3 per cent from the same period last year and up 0.6 percentage points from the previous month. The rise of growth speed was mainly contributed by the sharp increase in corporate deposits. By the end of May, the outstanding amount of corporate deposits was 3.9056 trillion yuan (US$469 billion), up 20 per cent from the same period last year and 0.5 percentage points from the previous month. The outstanding amount of money in circulation was 1.38 trillion yuan (US$166.2 million), up 20.1 per cent. In May the amount of money withdrawn from circulation was 60 million yuan (US$7.2 million). At the end of May, the exchange rate of the yuan was 8.2773 to the US dollar, with the yuan appreciating 20 basic points from the end of last year. |
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