Over One Million Families Use ICBC Housing LoansA spokesman for the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) said Tuesday that by the end of February, the number of households using ICBC housing loans had reached 1.026 million.The spokesman said that by the end of February, outstanding housing loans totaled 193.7 billion yuan (about 24.8 billion US dollars), of which individual housing loans were 115 billion yuan and real estate development loans were 79.1 billion yuan. In the first two months of this year, the bank's housing loans increased by 10.07 billion yuan, or 5.1 billion yuan more than the same period last year. At the end of 1999, the proportion of individual housing loans in the ICBC's total assets was only 1.76 percent, and there were only 500,000 households using its housing loans. At the end of last year, the proportion rose to 4.49 percent and the number of households increased to 960,000. The spokesman said this year the bank will continue to increase its input in the individual housing market, and the planned figure for the whole year is 100 billion yuan. The total number of households using the ICBC's housing loans is expected to reach 1.8 million by the end of the year. |
| People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/ |