Banks to Further Rein in New Loans in March

HONG KONG, Mar, 26 -- China will see a further slowdown of loan growth in March, which may help tackle the potential asset bubble possibly generated from the excess liquidity in the market, said Zhu Min, deputy governor of China's central bank, here on Thursday.

The slackening of pace is "a good sign", which indicates healthier lending structure and distribution, said the senior official of the People's Bank of China while attending the Credit Suisse Asian Investment Conference.

China's new lending in the first two months of 2010 surpassed 2 trillion yuan ($292.82 billion), while the figure in February was 700.1 billion yuan ($102.5 billion), much lower than the one in January, according to the officially released data.

Zhu was appointed as a Special Advisor to the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund and will take up his position in early May this year.