The People's Bank of China, the central bank, increased its loans by 150 billion yuan (US$18.07 billion) during the first six months this year.
The increased loans were thus 200 billion yuan (US$24.1 billion) larger than in the corresponding period of last year, said Dai Xianglong, governor of the People's Bank of China, at the press conference held in Beijing Wednesday.
He said that since the beginning of this year, the People's Bank of China has given further play to the role of monetary policy in facilitating economic growth.
The acceleration of the financial reform, the improvement in the credit structure, the strengthening of financial supervision and the reduction in the non-performing loans have all contributed to the positive financial performance and conspicuously promoted the national economic growth, the governor said.