Bank lending increases in August

Chinese banks gave out US$111.07 billion in new RMB loans in August, above the market’s anticipated total of US$94.8 billion, stoking analyst hopes for a rebound in the flagging Chinese economy, Reuters reported. New mid- and long-term loans increased to US$26.18 billion in August from US$18.65 billion in July, the People’s Bank of China said Tuesday. The higher figures indicate that banks are helping support the US$150 billion of infrastructure projects announced by the government last week. “It’s a pretty strong new loans number and the figure for total social financing is also very encouraging, it’s up year on year and month on month,” chief China economist at Nomura Zhiwei Zhang said. Analysts are still divided over whether China will reach its official target of 7.5% GDP growth without more aggressive measures.