THE country’s six major banks cranked up loan support for real economy sectors in the first half of the year, as demand was further unleashed amid sound recovery momentum.

The latest semi-annual reports of the six largest State-owned commercial banks show that each of the four biggest lenders issued more than 1 trillion yuan (US$154.97 billion) of new loans in the first half, injecting cash into key real economy sectors such as small and micro firms, agricultural and emerging industries.

The demand from businesses for credit loans was further unleashed as epidemic control efforts took hold and economic fundamentals sustained upward momentum, said Wang Jiang, head of China Construction Bank (CCB).

With the structure of credit-loan supply optimized and the financing services becoming more targeted and precise, the banks played a positive role in forging the recovery of the real economy, industry professionals noted.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) took the lead in steering loans to small and micro-sized enterprises, followed by Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) and Bank of China (BOC).

The growth rate of inclusive loans issued by ICBC stood at 40.4 percent in the first half, while that for ABC and BOC also surpassed 30 percent.

Green loans grew steeply within the context of China’s carbon goals. By the end of June, ICBC, ABC, BOC and CCB all reported a green-loan balance of more than 1 trillion yuan.

The lenders also ratcheted up financial support for strategic emerging industries, led by BOC. The bank saw loan issuance to the sectors skyrocket 83.5 percent from the end of last year.

Zhang Qingsong, head of ABC, said the bank stepped up credit-loan support for rural vitalization. By the end of June, the bank reported that the balance of loans issued to county-level regions stood at 5.9 trillion yuan.

Based on the principle that “houses are for living in, not for speculation” and the country’s regulatory control on forestalling and defusing financial risks, loans to China’s property sector saw slower expansion in the first six months.

Official data shows that outstanding property loans went up 9.5 percent from last year to 50.78 trillion yuan as of the end of June. According to the banks, the new loan quotas issued were mainly for meeting residents’ demands for buying their own houses to live in.

Over the next half year, loan issuances will maintain steady growth momentum, while the structure of credit loans will be further optimized, the banks said.

(Xinhua)