News from the People's Bank of China - China's central bank says that since the start of this year the bank has maintained prudent monetary policy and rationally regulated credit aggregate. Generally speaking financial operation during the first quarter continued to be steady. Monetary credit was rational and grew steadily while RMB exchange rate remained stable.

Deposits of various accounts in financial institutions grew steadily. By the end of March deposits of both RMB and foreign currency accounts in all the financial institutions had a balance of 26.9 trillion yuan, increasing by 15.6 percent year on year. Private deposits grew by 969.1 billion yuan, of which time deposits grew by 696.4 billion yuan and current deposits by 272.7 billion yuan. Deposits in non-financial companies increased by 66.8 billion yuan. Financial deposits increased by 193.9 billion yuan.

Deposits of foreign currency accounts had a balance of $162.8 billion increasing by 10.9 percent year on year.

Loan growth in the financial institutions grew appropriately. By the end of March loan balance of various RMB and foreign currency accounts was 19.8 trillion yuan increasing by 13.0 percent year on year. Loans in non-financial companies and other departments increased by 574.6 billion yuan. Foreign currency loans had a balance of $146.9 billion increasing by 13.3 percent year on year.

By People's Daily Online