China Tells

(Xinhua) China’s bank loans would report a steady growth in the second half of the year, since big fluctuations will hurt the economic recovery, a Bank of China official said Thursday, dispelling concerns over tightening credit.

“There will be a steady growth in the bank loans over the next six to 12 months,” Zhu Min, Vice President of the Bank of China, told Xinhua in northeastern China’s port city Dalian. Bank of China is one of the nation’s four big state-owned commercial banks.

Zhu refuted the belief among some that China’s bank credit will be tightened up in the second half of the year. Such concerns have been fuelled after the country’s commercial banks lent a record 7.73 trillion yuan (US$1.13 trillion) of new loans in the first seven months, far exceeding the full year target of 5 trillion yuan.

Bank credit in the second half would “closely follow the needs of various projects”, said Zhu, who is here for the the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2009, also known as the Summer Davos.

“There could be no big fluctuations in the bank loans, otherwise, it will be a big disadvantage to banks and the consolidation of the country’s economic recovery,” he said.