Reuters: Financial Services and Real Estate: CORRECTED-China banks' new loans in April seen at 800 bln yuan-paper

Reuters: Financial Services and Real Estate Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

CORRECTED-China banks' new loans in April seen at 800 bln yuan-paper May 3rd 2012, 03:38 Wed May 2, 2012 11:38pm EDT (Corrects March new loans figure in 7th paragraph to 1.01 trln yuan from 1.1 trln) SHANGHAI May 3 (Reuters) - China's banks issued an estimated 800 billion yuan ($126.84 billion) in new loans in April, official media reported on Thursday citing sources, a slight slowdown from the monthly pace in the first quarter. Management of commercial bank lending is an important component of China's monetary policy and a key factor determining overall economic growth. A sharp slowdown in lending could indicate monetary tightening or weak corporate demand for loans due to a slowing economy. The estimate by the official Securities Times was higher than projections by the China Securities Journal on Wednesday, saying new yuan loans in April would total about 700 billion yuan. Both estimates were based on an extrapolation from the figures on lending by the "big four" state-owned commercial banks, which typically account for 30 to 40 percent of total bank lending. The big four banks issued 260 billion yuan in loans in April, the Securities Times said, citing unidentified sources. The world's second-largest economy has expanded rapidly in recent years at the cost of over-reliance on loans and the state-owned sector that is still rippling through the economy. Chinese banks lent 2.459 trillion yuan in the first quarter, above the 2.2 trillion yuan seen in the same period last year. New yuan loans totalled 7.47 trillion in 2011. Economists widely expect new lending to fall from the 1.01 trillion yuan total seen in March. That figure, the highest monthly total since January 2011, was seen as compensating for lower-than-expected lending in the first two months of the year. Lending around 800 billion yuan in March would bring the amount of loans so far to 3.26 trillion yuan, putting the banking system on pace for strong yearly growth, analysts say. A precise estimate based on the first four months of the year is difficult because bank lending is typically stronger in the first half of the year. Previous years have seen a quarterly distribution of 3:3:2:2, but regulators are trying to smooth out the distribution. Zhu Haibin, Chief China economist for JP Morgan in Hong Kong, believes new yuan loans will total 8.2 trillion yuan in 2012. ($1 = 6.3070 Chinese yuan) (Reporting by Gabriel Wildau; Editing by Jacqueline Wong) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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