China 2011 property loans slow, bill financing surges

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese banks extended a total of 1.26 trillion
yuan ($199.4 billion) in new loans to property developers and home
buyers in 2011, down 38 percent from 2010, the central bank said in a
statement on its website on Monday.
Beijing has taken an array of
measures to rein in the property market -- including raising mortgage
rates and minimum down payments -- to ease public discontent with
rocketing home prices, a process that has made it difficult for both
home buyers and developers to get bank loans.
Property loans accounted for 17.5 percent of total new loans issued last year compared with 26.9 percent in 2010.
Outstanding
loans to property developers rose 17 percent from a year earlier to
2.72 trillion yuan at the end of December compared with a rise of 23
percent at the end of 2010.
The central bank also said that the
mid-to-longer term loans to manufacturing and service industries also
grew at a slower pace last year, with new lending to manufacturers
falling 35 percent from a year ago to 517.1 billion yuan.
New short-term loans and bill financing reached 3.11 trillion yuan in 2011, surging from 0.81 trillion yuan in 2010.