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Both outstanding savings deposits and loans held by domestic banks in Shanghai, China's leading industrial center, hit record highs in the first quarter of this year.
Outstanding savings deposits in Chinese-financed banks in Shanghai stood at 1,281.74 billion yuan (US$154 billion) at the end of last March, up 68.9 billion yuan (US$8.3 billion) from the beginning of the year.
Outstanding loans offered by these banks totaled 977.24 billion yuan (US$117 billion), an increase of 66.4 billion yuan over the beginning of the year.
Time deposits dominated the growth of savings deposits. As for loans, the amount of short-term loans grew faster than the medium-and long-term loans. Most of these loans were channeled to industrial enterprises, the construction sector and foreign-financed and township firms, said an official of the Shanghai Branch of the People's Bank of China.
A spokesman for the People's Bank of China predicts that loans extended by Shanghai's financial institutions will continue to grow in upcoming months as a result of fast economic development. This is conducive to the rational use of funds and the cultivatation of new growth outlets.
(Xinhua News Agency April 11, 2003)
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