Report suggests new, below 500 bln yuan, loans for China during July

Report suggests new, below 500 bln yuan, loans for China during July On Friday, state media reported that in the month of July, new loans issued by Chinese banks are expected to not exceed 500 billion yuan (73.2 billion dollars), less than a third of that lent in June.

The official Shanghai Securities News, while citing unnamed sources, reported that a quick drop from the 1.53 trillion yuan of new loans previous month was in line with expectations.

The Chinese banks would likely continue with the slow down in the pace of their lending for the rest of 2009 - after having issued a record 7.4 trillion yuan in new loans in the first half of the year!

Since late 2008, aggressive steps - including a looser monetary policy and a huge fiscal stimulus package - have been taken by Beijing, to pull the world's third-largest economy out of its worst slump in decades.

However, the lending spree has increased the concerns that, rather than being put to use in the real economy, some of the loans have been funneled into the stock and property markets for fast profit.