Statistics released on Monday by the central bank show that at the end of August, the outstanding loans of all financial institutions totaled 10.8 trillion yuan, up 12.6 percent in constant terms. In the first eight months of the year, loans totaling 821.2 billion yuan (US$98.94 billion) were granted, increasing 9.6 billion yuan over the same period last year.

At the same time, the outstanding deposits in all financial institutions totaled 13.7 trillion yuan (US$1.65 trillion), up 16.1 percent, of which corporate deposits accounted for 4.8 trillion yuan (US$578 billion), up 16.6 percent. The outstanding residents' deposits were 7.06 trillion yuan (US$850.6 billion), up 12.3 percent.

At the end of August, the exchange rate for Renminbi was one US dollar for 8.2767 RMB yuan, appreciating 14 basic points from the end of last year.

A PBOC spokesman said that in the first eight months of the year China's financial operation maintained healthy and stable momentum. The central bank will continue to carry out its prudent monetary policy and maintain its present operational efforts, employ various monetary policy tools in a comprehensive way to appropriately increase money supply; reinforce financial supervision to prevent financial risks; step up foreign exchange supervision and maintain balanced international payments; and improve financial services to support a sustained, fast and healthy development of the national economy.

(Xinhua News Agency 09/11/2001)