S Korean banks' corporate loan growth recovers in April

SEOUL, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Growth of South Korean banks' lending to
companies restored in April thanks to government credit guarantees, the central
bank said Monday.

According to the Bank of Korea (BOK), local banks' outstanding loans to
companies stood at 472.4 trillion won (381.6 billion U.S. dollars), marking a
month-on-month increase of 3.22 trillion won (2.6 billion U.S. dollars).

The April rise compared with a 2.1 trillion-won (1.7 billion-U.S. dollar)
increase in March, the central bank said.

The rise in loan growth comes as bank loans to smaller companies picked up
with state-run agencies' providing loan guarantees, the BOK said.

Local banks' loans to smaller companies climbed by 3.2 trillion won (2.6
billion U.S. dollars) to come in at 412.3 trillion won (333.1 billion U.S.
dollars), while those to larger companies marked an increase of mere 19.1
billion won (15.4 million U.S. dollars) to reach 60.1 trillion won (48.5 billion
U.S. dollars, the BOK added.

The South Korean government has endeavored to help local lenders increase
loans to smaller firms by providing credit guarantees as lenders stayed
concerned over their financial health.

S Korea sees increase in bond issuance in April

SEOUL, May 11 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's bond issuance rose 14.2 percent last month from March as sales of treasuries and bonds by the central bank expanded, the nation's bourse operator said Monday.

The total bonds issued in the nation last month amounted to 65.06 trillion won (52.2 billion U.S. dollars), up from 56.98 trillion won (45.7 billion U.S. dollars), according to the Korea Exchange (KRX).

The April rise came as the Bank of Korea (BOK) sold massive amounts of bonds in a bid to absorb short-term funds from the market, according to the bourse operator.

The rise is also attributable to the government's increased sales of treasuries after it expanded its supplementary budget, the operator said.

The value of the nation's outstanding bonds came in at 948.69 trillion won (761.17 billion U.S. dollars) at the end of April, up 24.63 trillion won (19.76 billion U.S. dollars) from the previous month, it said.

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China's new bank loans fall in April

BEIJING, May 11 (Xinhua) -- China's bank credits fell considerably in April
after staying above 1 trillion yuan for three straight months, with
yuan-denominated new loans standing at 591.8 billion yuan (about 86.65 billion
U.S. dollars), the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said here Monday.

It brings outstanding loans in financial institutions up 29.72 percent to
35.55 trillion yuan by the end of April.

The loan increase in April was less drastic than in the first quarter,
which was largely in line with market forecasts.

The country has pumped 4.58 trillion yuan (670 billion U.S. dollars) of new
loans into the economy in the first quarter to stimulate growth.

The figure is already nearing 5 trillion yuan of new loans targeted for the
whole year. In March alone, new loans increased by a record 1.89 trillion yuan.

The reminbi deposit increased by 1.03 trillion yuan in April, making the
outstanding deposit 53.29 trillion yuan, up 26.21 percent.

In the first-quarter monetary policy report released earlier this month,
the central bank said it would continue to instruct financial institutions to
extend new loans, despite the earlier surge.

Ding Zhijie, deputy director of the Finance Institute of the University of
International Business and Economics, estimated that loan increases would
further slow down in the second quarter, but the liquidity would remain
abundant.

In the upcoming months, new bank loans should keep growing by 400 to 500
billion yuan per month, estimated Liu Yuhui, an economist with Chinese Academy
of Social Sciences (CASS).

The new loans this year would reach about 9 trillion yuan, said Liu.

The broad money supply, M2, gained 25.95 percent to 54.05 trillion yuan at
April end from a year earlier, said the bank.

M1, the narrowest measure of money supply that includes cash in circulation
plus corporate current deposits, reached 17.82 trillion yuan, up 17.48 percent.

The lasting growth in M1 showed more loans are entering real economy,
making the economy more active, experts said.

But the gap between M1 and M2 remained high, suggesting that a considerable
amount of savings was still locked up in fixed deposits, instead of flowing into
the economy.

China's new loan growth may decline in
April

BEIJING, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Credit extended by China's
banks in April may have dropped to above 600 billion yuan (about 87.85 billion
U.S. dollars) after staying at above 1 trillion yuan for three straight months,
industry insiders said.

Despite the sharp month-on-month decline, the scale and
growth of the April new loans was "more reasonable" than that in the first three
months this year, said Tuesday's China Securities Journal, citing unidentified
sources with banks. Full story

Banking regulator says government new
loans not limited to 5 trillion yuan

BOAO, Hainan, April 18 (Xinhua) -- China's banking
regulator said Saturday the government's target of new loans this year is not
limited to 5 trillion yuan (735.3 billion U.S. dollars), and all funds should
help keep the sustainable and rapid development of the economy.

Liu Mingkang, chairman of the China Banking Regulatory
Commission, made the remarks at a panel discussion of the Boao Forum for Asia
(BFA). Full story

China's new yuan loans
surge

BEIJING, April 17 -- The explosive credit growth over the
past few months has propped up the sagging economy, but it may also plant the
seed for an asset price bubble and inflation, according to experts.

"The positive news for the first quarter is the strong
loan growth," Wang Tao, head of China Economic Research with UBS Securities,
said at a forum on Wednesday. "It is a sign that China's growth relies more on
credit rather than fiscal stimulus." Full story

China's new yuan loans hit 1.3 trln
yuan in March

BEIJING, April 3 -- China's new yuan loans amounted to 1.3
trillion yuan in March as the country continued to pump in massive liquidity
into the economy to battle impacts of the global financial crisis, a source
close to the matter told China Daily.

A report by Caijing magazine on Tuesday said new yuan
loans extended by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China
Construction Bank, Bank of China and the Bank of Communications exceeded 800
billion yuan in March. Full story