Agricultural Bank Increases Housing LoansThe Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), one of the country's four big state banks, increased housing loans by 79.8 percent or 12.39 billion yuan from January to August this year.Shang Fulin, president of the ABC, said today by the end of August, outstanding housing loans granted by the ABC had reached 54.42 billion yuan, and individual housing loans reached 27.92 billion yuan. According to Shang, the bank readjusted its lending policy this year, giving more focus to the housing sector. The bank is set to increase its housing loans to 10 percent of its total loans by 2004. Up till now, the ABC has provided 19 kind of loans in 10 categories to urban and rural residents, with the longest lending period of 30 years and the largest sum of up to 80 percent of the full amount. Moreover, the ABC has recently launched a new program to increase lending to small towns in China's rural areas to help facilitate the urbanization process. The new program will allow farmers to migrate into towns and earn "stable incomes" before applying for housing loans. China's housing sector has developed at a fast pace since the country introduced pro-fiscal policies to stimulate consumption. Latest figures indicate that from January to August, the country invested 166.8 billion yuan in the housing sector, up 29 percent from the same period last year. |
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