Chinese Banks Report Lower Bad Loans in 2009

BEIJING, Jan. 18 -- Chinese commercial banks saw their bad loan ratio declined to 1.58 percent by the end 2009, China Banking Regulatory Commission said on Friday.

The figure was down 0.84 percentage points from the beginning of 2009, according to the commission.

The bad loans stood at 497.33 billion yuan (72.82 billion U.S. dollars), down 62.98 billion yuan from the beginning of 2009.