Shanghai Hailed Financial Prosperity in 2000Chinese-funded financial institutes in Shanghai, China's industrial and financial center, cheered the industry's boom last year.The latest statistics show that outstanding deposits held by Chinese-funded institutes hit 777.2 billion yuan (US$93.6 billion) and the balance of loans reached 638.6 billion yuan (US$76.9 billion), up 10.9 percent and 15.6 percent respectively compared with the year before. The finance and insurance industry has raised its share in the city's gross industrial value up to 15.2 percent from 10 percent five years ago, according to the statistics. The majority of the loans were given to foster Shanghai's infrastructure and the city's six pillar industries, such as the information and automobile industries. New and hi-tech industries, export enterprises, overseas-funded enterprises, and education also received large amounts of credit. The statistics show that five billion yuan (US$602 million) in loans were allocated to support information, bio-medicine and environment technologies. Consumer credit also saw large increases last year, and the balance of loans reached 60 billion yuan (US$7.2 billion). New loans last year are believed to have doubled that of the previous year, a record increase. |
| People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/ |