China Construction Bank Corp, the nation's second-largest lender, will increase its full-year lending target by as much as 50 billion yuan (US$7.3 billion) in response to the government's economic stimulus plan.

The bank will focus on railway, road and airport construction as well as the real estate industry, while cutting loans to industries with excess production capacity or "high" energy consumption and pollution, the Beijing-based company said in a statement late on Wednesday.

China announced a 4-trillion-yuan stimulus plan on Sunday to bolster the fourth-largest economy as the world heads toward a recession. After five years of growth above 10 percent, China's expansion may slow to 7.5 percent or less next year, the weakest in almost two decades, Bloomberg News said, citing to UBS AG and Credit Suisse Group AG.

The lender, 10.75 percent owned by Bank of America Corp, increased outstanding loans by 11 percent in the first nine months to 3.5 trillion yuan, slowing from 17-percent expansion in the same period a year earlier, as demand for loans waned in a cooling economy.

China's central bank had earlier capped the amount of new loans CCB was allowed to extend this year at last year's level of 350 billion yuan. The ceiling was raised by 5 percent in July.

(Shanghai Daily November 14, 2008)