New | New loans of 700b yuan in China fall short of estimates

New loans in China may have hit 700 billion yuan (HK$880 billion) in August, falling below expectations as mounting bad loans put pressure on lending, the China Securities Journal reported.

The figure far exceeded the 385 billion yuan in new loans reported in July but fell short of analysts’ expectations of 750 billion yuan.

Pressure from bad loans in the property sector likely tightened lending at the banks last month, the state-run paper said.

China’s four biggest banks lent 125 billion yuan in August while deposits fell by 450 billion yuan as wealth management products siphoned off cash, Caixin.com reported.

The central bank releases official lending data in the middle of the month.